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Some Stuff I Wrote (2001) H. Morris Williams

Several of these teachers later went into full time school administration. Martin Ferguson

of Springville School became principal of Richardson High School. Mildred Singleton Bennett of
Ft White became principal of Ft. White Bethlehem. James E. Green of Ft. White became principal

of Niblack Elementary. Vertie Williams Barrett of Richardson became principal of New Hope. And
there were many others.

Minnie J. Niblack of King’s Welcome School was so highly regarded as a teacher that our
county named Minnie J. Niblack Elementary School after her.

Richardson High School was the “flagship” school of the black community, a school where
many black students spent the happiest days of their lives, thanks to principals like R. R. Kennon,

Bertha Vaughn, and Carrie Jenkins Ferguson, to name a few.
Many of these early black schools and teachers are now gone-but not forgotten. They live

on in the memory of those lucky enough to have been influenced by them.

Three Untold Tales

July 27,1993

Fred Kinard (CHS, 1942) To know Fred Kinard was to love him. Ruggedly handsome, you
could just look at him and tell he was special. Emest Williams, CHS scholar-athlete of 1940, said,

“Fred had a ‘winner’s walk’. Wherever he was going, he just looked like he was on his way to a
victory.” Fred was a good student, Student Council president, and a great athlete. In football, he was
a strong, tough running back. In track, he once set the conference record by scoring more individual

points (18.75 points) in one meet than anyone else had scored in the history of the conference. He

held two state records, in the mile and half-mile. After high school graduation, Fred joined the Navy
and went to war. When he was barely twenty years old, he piloted a bomber that sank a Japanese
cruiser for which he was awarded the Navy Cross and a Silver Star. Afterwards, he transferred to

California to learn to pilot fighter planes. On May 20, 1945, Fred was killed in a flight accident
while on a training mission, at age twenty-one. After being first in so may things all his young life,

Fred “Fireball” Kinard became the first person to be buried in Lake City’s Memorial Cemetery.

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