The Way We Were: Dottie S. Dorion
Dottie Dorion is a Long Island native, born Dorothy Simpson in Floral Park, New York in 1934, but she has lived in Jacksonville for over five decades. She came here in 1971 from Puerto Rico so that her husband, George, could build a laboratory for his family’s company, Bacardi. Prior to their stint in Puerto […]
The Way We Were: Jack Lanier
Jack Lanier arrived in Jacksonville in a stranger’s truck more than eight decades ago. He became known as an inventor and a collector. He is a ceaseless worker, a self-made man. Most extraordinary of all is that he will turn 100 this month! Lanier was born on June 15, 1922 in Matter County, Georgia where […]
The Way We Were: Clayton M. Spradley
A man with Riverside roots. A former football star. A retired veteran with officer’s rank. Over four decades in various areas of law enforcement. A published author. An 82-year-old mind that remembers the exact addresses of places he’s lived, which he admits “is amazing!” This is Clayton M. Spradley of Orange Park. Spradley was born […]
The Way We Were: Winslow Ira Colbert
Winslow Ira Colbert of Ortega got her first boat, a wooden Curley boat with a 35mph motor, when she was fourteen years old. Her dad would launch it for her in the morning and the self- described “river rat” cruised up and down McGirt’s Creek, Moon Lake and the St. Johns River to Timuquana Country […]
The Way We Were: Fred Woolsey
Fred Woolsey is a Jacksonville native. His family lived on Green Street in West Riverside when he was born on February 22, 1936 to Dr. and Mrs. Fred and Helen Woolsey. A year later, he became big brother to Mary. Next door lived the Walton family of five. They had a son, Bob, who was […]
The Way We Were: Agnes Stack
Born in Ohio in 1935, the youngest of 11 children, Agnes Stack was the only one among her six sisters and four brothers who had any musical talent. When she was 4 years old, she made herself a cornstalk fiddle, sat on the back porch, and began singing “Going Down the Road Feeling Bad,” a […]
The Way We Were: Julie Babcock
Some people have a way of touching entire communities, generations of families. Some people have abiding faith, countless talents, and boundless energy. Some people are just natural servants, givers of good in a variety of ways. Julie Babcock (nee Cheves) is one such person. Julie Cheves, “Pronounced like cheese—Cheevz,” she said, was born at St. […]
The Way We Were: Anita P. Morris
She is a Coast Guard veteran of WWII, a patriot, a woman of faith, a hospital volunteer, an artist, wife, mother, and caregiver. She is and has been all of that and more. She is 100 years old. She is Anita P. Morris. Morris was born Anita Gloria Paone on September 24, 1921 in Utica, […]
