The Way We Were: Joyce Thomas Jones — Part II
By Laura Jane Pittman Last month, retired UNF educator Joyce Thomas Jones shared her earliest memories of growing up in the city of South Jacksonville in last month’s column. This month, we follow Jones through her elementary and high school years, in a charming glimpse of the way things were. Joyce Thomas Jones was […]
San Jose woman keeps songs, Psalms in her heart
By Amanda Ford Usually once someone has lived to be 80 years old, they are about ready to settle down and enjoy their golden years. Anne Coyle had made those plans for herself, and relished in them as she blew out the candles on her special day. “On my birthday I said to the Lord […]
Celebrating a century: Happy birthday to Addie K. Mallory
Timuquana-area resident Addie K. Mallory will be the center of family and friends’ attention when she is regaled with a centennial barbecue celebration next month in Georgia. Mallory’s 100th birthday open house will be at her lakefront home in Blakely, GA. There will be many fun memories to share. Born August 7, 1912 in Blakely, Mallory […]
The Way We Were: Betty and Tesch Brundick
By Victoria Register-Freeman Betty Blount Brundick likes to point at the letter B cast in concrete above the front door of her home. Her eyes twinkle when she says,” Tesch married me for the B.” The couple met at Lakeshore Junior High School in seventh grade. Betty remembers, “My class opened Lakeshore. For part […]
Go-Givers: Mary Swart
By Julie Kerns Garmendia After retirement from Bellsouth’s Human Resources department in 2003, Mary Swart’s years of volunteering meant that her charities just moved higher on her priority list. She refers to husband Michael, a retired colonel of the U.S. Army Reserves who also worked for the U.S. Department of Labor, as her dependable […]
Go-Givers: Kevin Kuzel
By Julie Kerns Garmendia In 2001 Kevin Kuzel, a former U.S. Navy Pilot who heartily calls himself a diehard Texan, moved to Jacksonville from Dallas. His roots in a Dallas historic district neighborhood meant that Commander Kuzel was immediately drawn to the Avondale Riverside area. The Kuzels are currently in the midst of a […]
The sun has come out: Local actress takes school lead in “Annie”
Fishweir Elementary School student, Jetti Godwin, scored one of the biggest roles of her acting career last month when she was asked to play Annie in the school’s end-of-the-year production. Godwin, a starlet in the making who began working on her lines in early January, said she was nervous when she came on stage. But […]
Alumni return for reunion party
Graduates from the St. Mark’s Episcopal Day School’s Class of 2006 returned to their Ortega alma mater for a reunion party. The gathering commemorated the students’ recent graduation from high school. Held in the school’s new Lori Schiavone Commons, the reunion gathered former teachers and students — many council leaders and team captains at their […]
Fishing for compliments
By Ally Schneider, Lily El Hassan, Brendan Farrell and Abbie Miller Mrs. Ossi, the 7th grade religion teacher at San Jose Catholic School, suggested to her students that we do a Lenten project at school We all enthusiastically agreed. When it came time to choose the project, everyone poured in their ideas. The number one […]
