Page 150 - some-stuff-i-wrote-and-some-stuff-i-didn't-(2011)-h-morris-williams

Some Stuff I Wrote (2001) H. Morris Williams

Lake City s Governor

July 16,1994

Frederick Preston Cone is the only Florida governor who was bom in Columbia County. He
served from 1937-41 and accomplished much. For example, he started the licensing of automobile

drivers to finance the Florida Highway Patrol. But, he also had a dubious distinction that dated back
to his youth. Historian Jerrell H. Shofner writes that Fred went to Hamilton County when he was

■ 17 years old and shot and wounded “a stubborn, belligerent Republican who was a former Union
■ soldier and an avid member of the Grand Army of the Republic,” who was about to take up

* appointment as postmaster in White Springs.
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j Other interesting facts about Governor Cone: of the Florida governors elected in this century, at
> age 66. he was the oldest at the time of his inauguration. Also he vetoed the most legislative acts

& (146). He was ill and unable to deliver the governor’s message to the joint Houses of the Legislature
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in 1939, but Attorney General George Couper Gibbs made the speech for him.
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Governor Cone did so much for Columbia County during his time in office that a friend once
told him, “You have done so much for your county that the Legislature will get upset and not do
> anything else for Columbia County for a long time to come.” Governor Cone replied, “When I get

through doing all I can for my people, the Legislature won’t have to do any more. My people will
have all they need!”

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. THE CHS CLASS OF ‘59 -.. This class will have 35 reunion Saturday night at Lake City
Country Club. Do you know what special distinction this class holds? They were the last class to

|> graduate from CHS when it was located on West Duval Street. To commemorate this distinction,
the class authorized class member and artist Tony Keaton to sketch and frame a likeness of the
building as it was in 1959. The class formally presented this beautiful work of art to the school
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system and it now hangs in the front hallway of our Administration Complex. More about the Class
\ of 1959: their principal was N. J. Johns; their football coach - Don Brown; and their band director

b was Lenvil Dicks. The class officers were: Jerry Gambil, president; Tom Brown, vice president;
* Alethia Rigdon, secretary; Kay Sandlin, treasurer; and Annette Page, reporter. They dedicated their
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yearbook to Meriba Ogden for “her kindness, patience, knowledge, and teaching skill.”
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