The Way We Were: Gina Martinelli
Gina Martinelli can, quite easily, be called Jacksonville’s version of Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Janis Joplin, Stevie Nicks or any of the other well-known Sixties female singers. Just like many in show business, Martinelli was not born with her current name. Piano bar engagements in the 1970s inspired her stage name and current persona. “After […]
The Way We Were: Dr. Roy H. Schnauss
Most likely, there was never any question that Fauntleroy “Roy” Harris Schnauss would have a career in anything not related to medicine. After all, he comes from a long line of physicians. Roy’s grandfather, Frederick Wilhelm Schnauss, was a general practitioner. His father, Fauntleroy, and uncle, W.R., were also general practitioners in Jacksonville. Where Roy […]
The Way We Were: Ron and Diane Cohen
When Ronald Stuart Cohen was born at St. Vincent’s Hospital in 1946 the total bill for the delivery and five days’ stay for him and his mother, Rose Lena, was $70.20. His father, Benjamin, paid $50 then and $20.20 later. Ron still has the receipt. Ron grew up with his brother Martin on Belote Place […]
The Way We Were: Anis Ira Daley and Barney Daley
When Dr. Gordon H. Ira Sr., bought a parcel on the Black Creek in the 1950s, his daughter, Anis Ira Daley, an Ortega resident, never dreamed five generations of her family would still enjoy the rustic retreat more than 60 years later. Even compared to a hang-gliding trip in New Zealand and a fly-fishing trip […]
The Way We Were: Catherine and Kara Williams
For 20 years, they were roommates. Now they are neighbors. The best of friends. Not every mother and daughter can say that, but Catherine and Kara Williams can. Until recently they lived together in the house on Thornwood Lane in San Marco that Catherine’s father bought in the 1940s. Now Kara, 54, lives across the […]
The Way We Were: Walter Ford Rogers, Jr.
At age 95, Walter Ford Rogers, Jr.’s memory has not faded. The Avondale native can still vividly recall the day in 1927 when President Calvin Coolidge traveled down Post Street in an open car, as well as the headlines announcing Charles Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic, and fighting with his unit behind enemy lines in […]
The Way We Were – Corky and Kit Thomas
It’s amazing Kit and Corky Thomas of San Marco didn’t meet a whole lot earlier than 1982 when the couple – both single parents of daughters – went on their first date to a Florida-Georgia football game. Kit, whose maiden name was Bunch, grew up in San Marco, while Corky lived his childhood years across […]
The Way We Were – Hayes and Norma Basford
On a Sunday afternoon in the early 1940s, Hayes Basford, Jr., his father and maybe a couple of friends would saddle up their horses at the Basford home on five acres between Prunty Avenue and Tunis Street in Murray Hill for a 10- or 15-mile jaunt. “We would cut through the woods, cross Cassat and […]
