Hyde Park grandmother takes on jet skiing
As Percy Jones Russell approached her eighty-second birthday, COVID-19 and her husband’s health had kept her confined for the past couple of years, and the family felt it was time for her to get out and enjoy herself. “My sister, Kathy, encouraged our mother to do something totally different for her birthday,” said Terry Russell […]
DAR recognizes Cochran’s 50 years of volunteer service
50-year commitment to volunteering is unusual, and the Jacksonville Chapter of the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution recently took the opportunity to recognize Avondale resident Carol Cochran’s half-century of service. Since 1971, when Cochran became a member of Shawnee Mission Chapter, Shawnee Mission, Kansas, to today, she has been an active volunteer […]
Festival celebrates the power of performing arts for teens
The Performers Academy, located in the St. Nicholas area, kicked off its tenth year of Camp Just Like Me on June 1 with TPA Fest 2021, the nonprofit’s first-ever mural festival. More than 12 local and visiting artists participated, with some murals created collaboratively and some done independently. The artists completed their murals over the […]
Local Folks: Elaine Wheeler
“All you need is love…and a carrot dog.” Paul McCartney may have written the first part of that line, but Elaine Wheeler created the now famous carrot dog at her vegetarian café and art gallery, Heartworks, which until 2007 was the heart and soul of 5 Points and one of the only vegetarian cafes in […]
Local Folks: Tyler Hodges
Many know Tyler Hodges as President and Head of The Bolles School. Many don’t know him as a family man—a husband and a father. Hodges lives in a household among five females: his wife, Tristan; his daughters, Madalene (15) and Hannah (12); and his dogs, a 5-year-old goldendoodle named Murphie and an under-a-year-old Maltese shih […]
The Way We Were: Larry and Mary Jane McKnight
The story of Larry and Mary Jane McKnight began in the first grade at Hendricks Avenue Elementary School, and it continues today, seven decades later. Both of them were born and raised in the San Marco area of Jacksonville—Larry on River Oaks Road with one younger sister and Mary Jane on a street just off […]
Jacksonville mourns passing of a leader, pillar of medical community
Dr. Leon Haley Jr., CEO of UF Health was a fierce leader, a scholar, and a gentleman. Haley passed away suddenly in a personal watercraft accident Saturday, July 24, in South Florida. Haley was wearing a lifejacket, but according to eyewitness accounts, he lost control of the Yamaha WaveRunner he was riding and it somehow […]
In Memoriam: Joe Smith
March 31, 1948 – February 15, 2020 Retired firefighter Lt. Joe Smith answered his “Last Alarm” and took his last ride to Union Hall on Engine 18 as he was remembered by his fellow firefighters on his birthday March 31. In keeping with the motto “remembering our brothers who have answered their last alarm,” Joe […]
