Seminole County School Board]]> Seminole County School Board: Seminole County Public School System Collection, box 2, folder 1A, UCF Public History Center, Sanford, Florida.]]> Seminole County School Board.]]> UCF Public History Center, Sanford, Florida.]]> Seminole County Public Schools Collection, Student Museum and UCF Public History Center Collection, Sanford Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> Adobe Acrobat Reader]]> Seminole County School Board.]]> UCF Public History Center and is provided here by RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]>
Marie Jones Francis, the "midwife of Sanford," left behind a successful hotel and restaurant she owned in Sarasota in 1942 to return to Sanford and become a midwife. World War II caused a shortage in doctors and nurses, so Florida's Children's Bureau sent Francis to Florida A & M to acquire her practical nursing license in 1945. She specialized in premature babies and returned to Sanford to aid her mother, Carrie Jones, at Fernald-Laughton Memorial Hospital before they opened the ward in their home. "When her health starting failing," she recollects in a newspaper article, "I took over." Francis converted her house at 621 East Sixth Street to also serve as a maternity ward, where she delivered over 40,000 babies over her 32 year career. She became a midwife in the same vein as her mother, Carrie Jones, and together they ran the Jones-Francis Maternity Hall in Georgetown.

Francis served her community in several ways. She delivered babies for both white and black families from Seminole County, primarily patrons who either preferred natural births or could not afford deliveries at a hospital. In the 1950s, it cost $70 to stay nine days where soon-to-be mothers were taken care of. Francis was assisted by her sister, Annie Walker, who did the cooking. The house and ward also served as a school, where Marie Francis taught nurses the art of midwifery. Nurses would come from across the state to learn how to delivery infants naturally. A heavy burden on a single working mother, Marie Francis had three daughters, Cassandra Clayton, Daphne Humphrey, and Barbara Torre. Clayton and Humphrey became school teachers and Torre became a purchaser at Seminole Memorial Hospital.]]> 0:00:23 Growing up in Sanford
0:01:12 Interaction between black and white community
0:02:12 Layout of Georgetown
0:03:25 Sanford Avenue
0:12:04 East Sixth Street
0:13:00 Locust Avenue
0:14:37 Hickory Avenue
0:15:06 Goose Hollow
0:34:42 Marie Jones Francis and Carrie Jones
0:16:45 Students trained by Francis
0:19:15 Memories of her mother and her childhood
0:26:56 Experience as a teacher
0:30:01 African-American businesses and people in Georgetown
0:39:53 Parents
0:47:52 Age and mental retention
00:51:26 Education, employment, and siblings
0:53:38 Childhood neighborhood
0:57:31 Reflections on life
0:59:53 Growing up in Sarasota
1:02:46 How children have changed over time
1:04:26 Friends and family
1:11:24 Working at a health food store
1:12:18 Former students
1:15:11 Importance of being polite and respectful
1:16:16 Importance of reading
1:18:08 Daily plans and the RICHES project
1:19:39 Goldsboro
1:23:58 Childhood neighborhood
1:29:40 Closing remarks]]> RICHES of Central Florida.]]> RICHES of Central Florida]]> Marie Jones Francis Collection, Georgetown Collection, Sanford Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> QuickTime.]]> RICHES of Central Florida.]]> RICHES of Central Florida]]>
Francis served her community in several ways. She delivered babies for both white and black families from Seminole County, primarily patrons who either preferred natural births or could not afford deliveries at a hospital. In the 1950s, it cost $70 to stay nine days where soon-to-be mothers were taken care of. Francis was assisted by her sister, Annie Walker, who did the cooking. The house and ward also served as a school, where Marie Francis taught nurses the art of midwifery. Nurses would come from across the state to learn how to delivery infants naturally. A heavy burden on a single working mother, Marie Francis had three daughters, Cassandra Clayton, Daphne Humphrey, and Barbara Torre. Clayton and Humphrey became school teachers and Torre became a purchaser at Seminole Memorial Hospital.]]> The Seminole Herald, February 16, 2003: Private Collection of Daphne F. Humphrey.]]> The Seminole Herald, February 16, 2003.]]> The Seminole Herald, February 16, 2003, page 1C.]]> Marie Jones Francis Collection, RICHES of Central Florida, Georgetown Collection, Sanford Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> The Seminole Herald.]]> The Seminole Herald and is provided here by RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]>
Margaret Black was born on June 23, 1893, in Sanford to Harry Black (d. 1911) and Maggie Benjamin Black (ca.1870-ca.1934). She had four brothers and two sisters: Pilgrim Black, Leatha Black Walker (1889-1976), and Harriett Black Lawson. Margaret married James Jones and had five children: Reverend Charles Black, James W. Jones, Pauline Jones Parrish, Ella Jones Randall, and Christine Jones Childs. Margaret joined the Hickory Avenue Church of God in 1952 and served as a member of the Mothers' Board and Ladies Auxiliary.

On February 18, 1980, Jones passed away in Sanford. Her funeral services included speeches and performances by the Gospel Choir of the Hickory Avenue Church of God, Bishop Leon Devaux, Bishop Roosevelt Hestle, Mother Odell Turner, Aletha Hardy, Deacon Tommie Hayes, Sister Dorothy Miller, Sister Fannie Bookman, the Angelic Trio, Bob Brown and his staff, and Reverend Percell Sanders.]]> Adobe Acrobat Reader]]> RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]>