Family, friends and fellow colleagues from the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office gathered at the E.T. York Hospice chapel to celebrate the life of Lt. Curtis W. O’Quinn on Friday (Feb. 28th, 2014). O’Quinn, of Cross Creek, passed away February 20, 2014. Curtis was born on March 27, 1951 and was raised most of his life in Cross Creek. He worked with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office from 1972 ’til 2002, and retired as a Lieutenant. Several former deputies shared memories of being trained by O’Quinn in earlier times with the Sheriff’s Department when communication between deputies was not as easy as today and how that led to some unusual predicaments at times when answering some 911 calls.
Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell presents flag to O’Quinn’s wife Diane during memorial service
Retired Deputy Bobby Whitney from Cross Creek, a childhood friend of O’Quinn, shared the story of how when he had just become a deputy, O’Quinn taught him how to take his new gun apart and put it back together. But in the middle of the demonstration they received a radio call to rush to the scene of a robbery across town. The story brought a smile to the face of Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell who was in attendance.
Others spoke of how Lt. O’Quinn was fearless in the field and a “larger than life” character who was proud of being a law enforcement officer. Several of the deputies who trained with him attended the service.
One of the speakers was retired Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission officer Jim Sullivan who remembers how much O’Quinn loved to fish and hunt and shared some amusing stories from earlier days around “The Creek.”
O’Quinn is survived by his wife, Diane O’Quinn; sons, Matthew, Justin, and Tyler O’Quinn; step-sons, Christopher and Joshua Creel; sister, Mary Ann and husband Wallace Lindsey; brother, Eugene and wife Sharon O’Quinn, and eleven grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his father, James O’Quinn; mother, Beatrice Townsend-Polk; uncle, Marvin Townsend; and grandmother Mary Guthrie-Townsend.
Here are the winner, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers of the 2014 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest:
Here’s a look back at the top 3 winners of the 2014 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest along with video clips of them performing their winning song on the main stage at the 2014 festival.
1st place winner Jane Fallon
The 2014 first place winner was Jane Fallon from Brookline, NH. Her song entitled “Before the Fire (Rosewood)” captures the emotional story and resulting fear from the 1923 Rosewood tragedy in North Central Florida. Jane has been a finalist in several songwriting competitions such as SolarFest , the Ossipee Music Festival and the prestigious Rose Garden Coffeehouse Competition. Her songs have placed 2nd and 3rd respectively in the Neuse River MusicFest competition and the West Coast Songwriters Competition.
2nd place Larry Mangum
The 2014 second place finisher Larry Mangum is from Jacksonville. His song entitled “Florida” describes the beauty of the Sunshine State and why he’s proud to call it home. Mangum has given nearly 3000 performances over 4 decades as a folk, rock, country and Americana artist. He’s released 8 albums of original music and 2 live albums since 1980. In 2006 he won third place in the Will McLean Song contest with his tribute to Gamble Rogers, “The Last Troubadour.” He is also host and co-founder of “The Songwriters’ Circle” in Jacksonville, a monthly program featuring many of the best regional and national touring acts.
Third place Ray Sealey
The 2014 third place finisher was Ray Sealey from Harrington, QC. His song “Kissimmee Prairie Dream” gives the flavor of Central Florida’s early years in the Kissimmee area. Ray was born in England and received a degree in English Literature after emigrating to Canada. He was involved in folk music in his early years but then turned to classical guitar. He eventually taught music at the Universities of Western Ontario and Ottawa. He also worked in radio at the CBC and later in arts management being involved in music festivals, summer music centers and orchestras. Now, later in life, he has returned to those early folk roots and spends summer in the Laurentian Mountains north of Montreal and winter in Florida.
Festival montage photo by Gail CarsonThe late Jan Glidewell
2014 marked the 25th anniversary of the Will McLean Folk Festival which ran from Friday, March 7th thru Sunday, March 9th. The 2014 festival honored Jan Glidewell, a longtime columnist for the Tampa Bay Times who died in 2013 from cancer. Glidewell was an avid supporter of the festival. The 26th year for the 3-day festival gets underway at the Sertoma Youth Ranch near Dade City on March 13th, 2015. The winner and 2nd and 3rd place finishers of this year’s song contest will be featured on Saturday, March 14th.
The Will McLean festival features four stages, including a young performers stage, a variety of music workshops, arts and crafts, food and more. McLean, known as the “Black Hat Troubadour,” is the first folk artist inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. In 2014 one of the newest folk musicians inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame, Frank Thomas, also performed at the Will McLean Music Festival. In the clip below recorded on the Cypress Stage at last year’s festival you’ll see Frank singing one of his most popular songs, “Cracker Cowman.”
Frank Thomas was accompanied by members of the band Roadside Revue featuring Dawn DeWitt on bass, Bari Litschauer on banjo, Ron Litschauer on guitar and Stan Geberer on harmonica.
Thousands traveled to Washington D.C. last August to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream Speech.” But before King ever made that speech on August 28th, 1963, Floridian Harry T. Moore was doing groundbreaking work in the state registering African American voters. Moore also investigated police brutality and lynchings. Sadly, Moore and his wife Harriette died when someone planted a hate bomb at their home in December of 1951. No one has ever solved the murder. In January of 2001, PBS aired a documentary on Harry T. Moore called, “Freedom Never Dies: The Legacy of Harry T. Moore.” The program was produced by Sandra Dickson and Churchill Roberts from the University of Florida Documentary Institute (the Institute is no longer at UF because of budget cuts). Donna Green-Townsend talked with them about the production of this 90-minute documentary and why Moore’s contributions and sacrifice have been largely forgotten until now. (originally broadcast on WUFT in January, 2001).
Full script of feature:
Even though many are celebrating the life of the late Martin Luther King Jr. this month, there’s another unsung hero of the civil rights movement who is being remembered this month, Harry T. Moore. Donna Green-Townsend reports, Moore, who was born, raised and died in Florida, is finally receiving national acclaim for the civil rights groundwork he started in the state in the 1940s fighting for civil rights.
“It had all the elements of a great story. I mean here was an American hero. Very few people were knowledgeable about this story. The first civil rights martyr. You know, it was just a terrific topic.”
Documentary Co-director and writer of “Freedom Never Dies: The Legacy of Harry T. Moore,” Sandra Dickson.
“We thought the story transcended Florida, that it had national significance.”
Although a few writers have documented the life of Harry T. Moore, his name has not been synonymous with the civil rights movement at the national level. Yet Dickson along with her co-director, Churchill Roberts, both from the Documentary Institute at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications, discovered Moore had a very large role in the 1930s and 40s, travelling relentlessly, encouraging blacks to vote and corresponding with authorities over issues of inequality in teachers’ salaries for blacks and whites and conducting investigations into a number of lynchings in Florida.
(nat sound from documentary)
The documentary opens with what happened on Harry T. Moore’s last night. Christmas, 1951, Harry T. Moore and his wife Harriett had just gone to bed in their home inside a small orange grove in Mims, Florida just north of Titusville. Within minutes, a bomb destroyed their lives. Ironic he would die a violent death when historians write about how calmly he spoke out about injustices he saw for blacks in Florida in the 1930s and 1940s. Frank Williams is featured in the documentary. He was one of Moore’s friends.
“He was not violent. He was so calm and collected. And so that’s what made people even more angry. Here this guy comes with a pleasant voice and says well, ‘we think it’s time that we should have equal salaries. It’s only fair. It’s only the right thing to do.’ He was a most determined man. Nothing could discourage him. Nothing could turn him around. It is as if God Almighty himself said you go down there and do that.”
Moore was born in 1905 in Houston, Florida in Suwannee County. He was an only child. His father died when he was 9. His mother sent him off to Jacksonville to live with his aunts and go to school. He finished high school however in Suwannee County. He eventually became a school teacher and principal. He had two daughters. He eventually lost his teaching job because of participation in the NAACP. He travelled continuously around the state organizing new chapters of the organization and encouraging blacks to vote. Moore’s friend Ernestine Jamerson also appears in the documentary and recalls how Moore encouraged her to get to know the candidates.
“Whoever was running for an office, he would go to them and find out their platform. Then he would come back, meet at any one of the churches and we would go and he would explain their platform and what he thought was good and what he thought was the best for us and which was not.”
(nat sound from the documentary of a letter being read that was written by Moore:
“To honorable J. Harry Shad, candidate for U.S. Senate, Gainesville, Florida. Dear sir, we note that your platform makes no mention of your stand on such vital issues as anti-lynching legislation. We note also that you express clearly your opposition to communism, but you fail to state your attitude with reference to the KKK. We shall appreciate an expression of your views on these issues. Respectively yours, Harry T. Moore, Executive Secretary, Progressive Voters League of Florida.”
“In the process of our investigation, or during the investigation we found that the mother of the young boy who’d been lynched, who was only 15 years old at the time, that she was still alive. She had moved to Orlando in 1944 when this happened. But when we went to see if we could talk to her, she wouldn’t talk to us. And her minister didn’t know about this. And her cousin said, to this day she won’t talk about it for fear that white people from Live Oak would come and get her.”
(nat sound and music from the documentary)
With the completion of the documentary and the national attention it’s getting, Dickson says she feels she’s achieved her mission.
“I think we felt like this was a forgotten hero and we wanted to restore him to his rightful place, or at least play a small part in restoring him to his rightful place in history, not just African American history, history in general.”
Photo of Tiffany Sessions who disappeared while on a walk in Gainesville 25 years ago this year
UPDATE: Investigators with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office and family members of missing Tiffany Sessions are hoping the public can help finally solve the 25 year old cold case . At a morning press conference, new details were revealed about the man law enforcement authorities believe may be responsible for Tiffany’s disappearance when she went for a walk on the evening of February 9th, 1989 near her Casablanca East apartment on Southwest 35th Place in Gainesville.
Cold Case Detective for the Alachua County Sheriff’s office, Kevin Allen, says Paul Rowles is the primary suspect in the case. Rowles, a registered sex offender, was convicted of murdering Linda Fida, of Miami, in 1972. Though he was given a life sentence, he was paroled in 1985. Three years later he moved to Gainesville. While in Gainesville he delivered pizzas and delivered scaffolding to a construction site near the apartment where Sessions lived. Rowles ended up back in prison in 1999 for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a teenager from Clearwater. He died in prison last year.
Rowles is the same man tied through DNA evidence to Elizabeth Foster’s murder. Law enforcement authorities are now excavating a site near where 21 year old Elizabeth Foster‘s body was located after she disappeared in March of 1992. Foster’s body was found in a shallow grave on the east side of Highway 441, not far from what was then the Brown Derby restaurant, just south of Williston Road.
The most compelling evidence revealed this week is an address book found among Rowles’ prison possessions where he had made note of the date 2/9/89…the same day Tiffany disappeared. The #2 was written on both sides of the date. Cold Case Detective Allen believes the #2 refers to Tiffany as his second victim. Alachua County Sheriff, Sadie Darnell and other community leaders as well as family members of Tiffany Sessions say they hope through this excavation process they will finally find Tiffany’s body.
News of the development in the Tiffany Sessions case is making national headlines including this broadcast on CBS This Morning. (could take just a moment for video to load)
Patrick Sessions and Tiffany’s mom Hilary have never given up hope that their daughter’s body and possibly her killer would be found. Patrick has often offered his emotional support to other families of missing and murdered children through the years, despite the lack of closure in his own daughter’s case. In 2009 he offered such support to the family of Somer Thompson. The 7 year old little girl was kidnapped on the way home from school in Clay County. Her lifeless body was discovered a few days later in a Georgia landfill. Law enforcement authorities reported she had also been sexually assaulted and eventually charged Jarred Harrell with the crime. In 2012 Harrell received 6 life sentences.
In the months before the killer was identified, Patrick Sessions talked with Donna Green-Townsend about the Somer Thompson case and shared his thoughts about the positive changes in the way law enforcement now handles missing children cases. He pointed out during the interview how when his daughter Tiffany went missing there weren’t as many technological or social media tools available and how he had to personally purchase a fax machine for the Alachua County Sheriff’s office, make his own fliers and pay for tracking dogs to help search for his daughter. During this 2009 interview below Sessions also gave his personal insight about what parents today should say to their own children to stay safe. (from my audio archives)
Lifelong resident of Cross Creek, 79 year old Berney Lee Bass died on January 23rd at his home after a long illness. He was the son of the late Charles Berney and Theresa Bass of Cross Creek.
Berney Lee worked as an electrician, working for many years for All Florida Electric, before his semi-retirement in 2004. He was preceded in death by his wife of 50 years, Geraldine Bass, who died in 2004. He is survived by one daugher, Lee Ann (Rickey)Benton of Cross Creek; two sons, Robert (Marlene) Bass of Lochloosa and Michael (Alisha) of Cross Creek; one sister, Bernice (Billy) Dyson of Hawthorne; and one brother, Roy (Wanda) Bass of Waldo, seven grandchildren and six great grandchildren.
Bass was an active member of the New Cross Creek Baptist Church and was a member of the Hawthorne Masonic Lodge, #103. Bass was an avid duck hunter and fisherman. Cross Creek area fishermen say the bass in Orange and Lochloosa Lakes are breathing a little easier now. The video below is a special tribute to Berney Lee.
Peyton Manning when he was quarterback for theTennessee Vols in 1997
Many sports writers across the country are describing Sunday’s Super Bowl XLVIII between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks as one of the best NFL matchups in history as it will pit the league’s best offense against the best defense.
Sunday’s matchup takes place in the outdoor MetLife Stadium in New Jersey and is expected to be a classic matchup of strength vs. strength.
Seattle’s quarterback Russell Wilson, in just his second season out of the University of Wisconsin, has taken the Seahawks to their second Super Bowl berth in franchise history.
Denver’s quarterback, Peyton Manning, will be playing in his third Super Bowl. Manning, who is in his 16th season in the pros, has a chance to become the first starting quarterback in the NFL to win the Super Bowl with multiple franchises. He won Super Bowl XLI with the Indianapolis Colts.
This may be his third Super Bowl, but there are those in “Gator Country” who won’t let the legendary quarterback forget that there are some accomplishments that eluded him, namely that Manning never beat Florida, never won a College Football National Championship and he never won the coveted Heisman Trophy, even after choosing to stay in college and forego the 1997 NFL draft even though he was considered to be a first round draft choice. To his credit Manning did lead the Volunteers to an SEC Championship his Senior year, though that was the same year (1997) he lost in the Swamp to the Gators 33 to 20.
Former Gator QB Danny Wuerffel
From my audio archives, here’s the 1997 feature produced just before Peyton Manning and the Tennessee Vols played the Florida Gators hoping for retribution in the Swamp.
Former Gator QB Doug Johnson
Another Gator signal-caller who DID win an SEC Crown, a College Football National Championship AND a Heisman Trophy was none other than Tim Tebow. Ironically, the Denver Broncos let Tebow go and signed free-agent Peyton Manning despite Tebow’s exciting comeback wins which took the Broncos to the NFL playoffs in 2012.
Tebow continues to be vocal about his desire to continue playing in the NFL. But after leaving the Broncos Tebow saw little playing time after he was traded to the New York Jets. On April 29, 2013, the Jets released Tebow who then signed a two-year, non-guaranteed contract with New England which lasted only a little more than two months. In late December Tebow was hired by ESPN as a college football analyst.
Tebow may not be on the field during the Super Bowl, but he’s already making headlines for a humorous television ad he will appear in during the game in which he points out how busy he is despite not having an NFL contract. Tebow talked about the ad during a guest appearance this past week on ABC’s Good Morning America program.
Singer Songwriter Pete Seeger, a good friend of Will McLean
One of the most enduring and loved folk singers in the U.S. has died. Pete Seeger, who had America singing such iconic tunes as, “If I Had a Hammer” died January 27th, 2014 at the age of 94 at a hospital in New York. President Barack Obama issued a statement saying, “Pete Seeger believed deeply in the power of song, but more importantly, he believed in the power of community …to stand up for what’s right, speak out against what’s wrong, and move this country closer to the America he knew we could be. Over the years, Pete used his voice, and his hammer, to strike blows for worker’s rights and civil rights; world peace and environmental conservation. And he always invited us to sing along. For reminding us where we come from and showing us where we need to go, we will always be grateful to Pete Seeger.”
In March, 2014 Singer Songwriter from Delray Beach, Rod MacDonald, asked several other musicians and the audience at the Will McLean Folk Festival to join him in a tribute to the late Pete Seeger:
Florida’s Black Hat Troubadour
While most people will be recalling the dozens of classics he helped make famous, like Turn, Turn, Turn, Where Have All The Flowers Gone, and Woodie Guthrie’s This Land Is Your Land, among others, there are many in the Sunshine State who will remember how Seeger reached out to the “Black Hat Troubadour” in Florida, the late Will McLean. The two songwriters shared a deep respect for one another.
“Will McLean’s songs will be sung as long as there is a Florida.” That’s how Pete Seeger described his friend. That quote was shared at the 1990 memorial service for McLean who was the first folk artist inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. President Emerita of the Will McLean Foundation, Margaret Longhill, says, Seeger and McLean were both genuine people with a great songwriting connection. They both liked to write songs about everyday people and they both liked to have their audiences sing along. “Pete Seeger’s songs will live forever in the hearts of those who seek truth, justice and love,” says Longhill.
The late Will McLean considered to be the “Father of Florida folk”
Longhill remembers attending a Pete Seeger concert at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater with McLean in the mid 1980s. Prior to the concert Seeger and McLean chatted as friends backstage. During the concert Seeger said to the audience, “Ladies and gentlemen, I would like you to know in this audience tonight is America’s greatest living songwriter, Will McLean. Will McLean stand up,” recalls Longhill.
Longhill says the story that’s been passed down is that McLean and Seeger became acquainted after McLean wrote a letter to Seeger saying, “I’m a Florida folk singer and I don’t have a guitar.” Soon after Seeger sent him a 12-string guitar. During McLean’s memorial service in 1990 many of his musician friends recalled with humor how that guitar was pawned as were many other guitars that followed.
While Pete Seeger will always be remembered for his part in the folk music revival in the 1960s, many in Florida will also think of him for providing McLean and the late Gamble Rogersthe opportunity to perform at a folk music concert in Carnegie Hall in New York City. Seeger loved Mclean’s earthy songs about unique characters and places in Florida such as Wild Hog, Tate’s Hell and Osceola’s Last Words.
Though Seeger travelled and wrote songs all around the country, McLean wasn’t interested in seeking fame and fortune and preferred to remain in Florida and write about his beloved “Florida Sand.” But the two songwriters continued to have great respect for one another. Seeger even performed one of McLean’s best known Florida songs about Chief Osceola during the nationally televised “Johnny Cash Show” in 1970.
Here’s a segment from a November 1985 interview with Donna Green-Townsend where McLean shares the story of performing at Carnegie Hall in NYC with Pete Seeger
Here’s more about that special trip to Carnegie Hall in NYC from the November, 1985 interview with Donna Green-Townsend
The Will McLean Foundation continues to hold a festival each year in honor of the state’s “Black Hat Troubadour.” The festival is held each March at the Sertoma Youth Ranch near Dade City. The festival features three stages along with various music workshops and the winners of an annual songwriting contest.
Newly appointed Union County Sheriff, Brad Whitehead
Governor Rick Scott has appointed Brad Whitehead to take over for his father, Jerry, who died last month of a heart attack.
Whitehead, 37, of Lake Butler, will be the third member of the Whitehead family to serve as sheriff of Union County. Whitehead has served as the assistant warden of programs for the Florida Department of Corrections since 2012. Past positions include serving as the assistant warden of operations and as the senior prison inspector within the Office of the Inspector General. He has also served as a law enforcement detective for the Division of State Fire Marshal, Bureau of Fire & Arson Investigations from 1998 through 2003.
Governor Scott said, “I am confident that Brad Whitehead will be a great sheriff. His experience in law enforcement has prepared him to serve the families of Union County.”
Original Story: Jerry Whitehead, The Late Union County Sheriff Describes The Community’s Strength During Tragedies
The late Jerry Whitehead who served as Union County Sheriff since 1985.
Despite a tragic school bus accident that killed seven children in Union County in 2006 and the August shooting spree when a former employee of Pritchett Trucking killed the company’s owner, 80 year old Marvin Pritchett and two of Pritchett’s employees, Union County Sheriff Jerry Whitehead says the community has learned how to cope and reach out to each other. Now the community will have to learn how to deal with the death of their long-time top law enforcement chief. Sheriff Whitehead, the longest serving sheriff in Florida, passed away on Wednesday, December 18th from an apparent heart attack. He was 60 years old. Funeral services will be held Saturday, December 21, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. at the First Christian Church of Lake Butler. Burial will be in Whitehead Cemetery. In lieu of flowers the family requests memorial contributions be made to the Florida Sheriff’s Youth Ranches Inc.; P.O. Box 2000, Boys Ranch, Florida 32064.
In this video recorded the week after the Pritchett Trucking shooting spree, Whitehead describes how Union County residents have learned how to deal with tragedy.
Video of law enforcement escorting Jerry Whitehead’s hearse the day of his funeral service.(posted by James Parker)
Cabbage pickers quickly work to bring in the crop before the expected hard freeze on Monday.
With record-breaking temperatures expected in Florida, cabbage pickers between Hastings and Palatka were busy today trying to harvest the latest crop.
Today’s scene was very similar to 2011 when cabbage growers also faced the risk of losing their winter crop to a hard freeze. Click on my archive story below to watch the process of cutting the cabbage and packaging it up for transport across the country.
Vegetable growers in North Central Florida scramble to get their crops to market during a January, 2011 freeze.
It’s that time of year again when North Central Florida serves as host to migrating sandhill cranes. Floridians are very familiar with the loud, squawking sounds of these tall birds with wing spans as wide as 6 feet as they circle above and fly to favorite feeding grounds around the Gainesville area, especially Payne’s Prairie and the shoreline and marshes of Orange and Lochloosa Lakes in Alachua County. The father of Florida folk, the late Will McLean (1919-1990), was inspired by the “dancing and prancing” of the cranes and penned the song called, “The Courtship Dance of the Florida Sandhill Cranes.” McLean is accompanied in this 1985 live recording by Kate Kennedy on bowed psaltry and David Beede on hammered dulcimer.
Cover photo of CD recorded in 1985 at the historic Thomas Center of Florida’s Black Hat Troubadour Will Mclean
Sandhill cranes flying over Watson Prairie near Cross Creek, FL.
In the news video below produced by Donna Green-Townsend on nesting ecology of Sandhill Cranes in Florida, you will hear the melody of McLean’s song performed by Melrose singer-songwriter David Beede and Kate Bostrum. The nesting ecology research was a cooperative effort between the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Wildlife and Range Sciences Department at the University of Florida. (this report originally aired statewide on the IFAS program Florida File in 1990)
