Heritage Jubilee Honors Distinguished Service Award
African Americans--Florida--Sanford
Sanford (Fla.)
Georgetown (Sanford, Fla.)
Midwives--United States
A newspaper article about the 1988 Heritage Jubilee Distinguished Service Awards. The Heritage Jubilee is sponsored by the Afro-American Society to honor the birth and achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The program was established in the early 1980s by students and faculty members at Seminole Community College. The committee also created the Distinguished Service Awards, which would highlight the achievements of local African-Americans. <br /><br /> One of the honorees for 1988 was Marie Jones Francis, the "midwife of Sanford." Francis 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.<br /><br /> 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.
Hawkins, Marva Y.
Original newspaper article: Hawkins, Marva Y. "Heritage Jubilee Honors Distinguished Service Award." <a href="http://mysanfordherald.com/" target="_blank"><em>The Sanford Herald</em></a>: Private Collection of Daphne F. Humphrey.
<a href="http://mysanfordherald.com/" target="_blank"><em>The Sanford Herald</em></a>
Orseno, Craig
Humphrey, Daphne F.
application/pdf
eng
Text
Jones-Francis Maternity Hall, Georgetown, Sanford, Florida
Funeral Services for the Late Mrs. Leatha Walker
Sanford (Fla.)
Funerals
Churches--Florida
Baptist Church
Funeral Services program for Leatha Walker (1889-1976), the sister of Pilgrim Black (1905-2002) and the aunt of Patricia Ann Black (1956- ). The services were held on March 6, 1976, at the Mt. Moriah Primity Baptist Church, located at 1101 South Locust Avenue in Sanford, Florida. Reverend J. S. Snelling presided over the service. <br /><br />Leatha Black was born on August 17, 1889, in Sanford to Harry Black (d. 1911) and Maggie Benjamin Black (ca.1870-ca.1934). She had four brothers and two sisters: Leckward Black, Mustar Black, Malachi Black, Pilgrim Black (1905-2002), Margaret Black Jones (1889-1976), and Harriett Black Lawson. As a child, she attended Seminole County Public Schools and was a member of the St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church.<br /><br />As an adult, she joined the Mt. Moriah Baptist Church under the pastorate of Reverend E. Bullard. Leatha married Reverend Robert Bradley and had one child with him, Reverend Israel Bradley Black (ca.1913-ca.2007). Several years later, Leatha married Reverend A. W. Walker and had four children with him: Joell Walker, Carrie Walker Oliver, Clementine Walker Barnes, and Harry Walker. Leatha was also a member of Rebecca Chapter 83 of the Order of the Eastern Star, a Freemason fraternal organization for both men and women.<br /><br />On February 26, 1976, Leatha Walker passed away at the Seminole Memorial Hospital, located at the corner of East First Street and Mellonville Avenue in Sanford. Her funeral services included speeches and performances by the Gospel Choir of the Hickory Avenue Church of God, Reverend P. Sanders, Reverend W. Brown, the Mt. Moriah choir, Deacon R. Zanders, Mother R. Wilson, Fernandina Beach, Sister Flossie Zanders, Mrs. Clyde Walker, and Reverend J.S. Snelling. Her remains were cared for by the Sanders Funeral Home and she was buried in the Light Foot Cemetery.
Mt. Moriah Primity Baptist Church
Original program, 1976: Mt. Moriah Primity Baptist Church, Sanford, Florida: Private Collection of Patricia Black.
Black, Patricia Ann
application/pdf
eng
Text
Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, Sanford, Florida
Seminole Memorial Hospital, Sanford, Florida
RICHES Podcast Documentaries, Episode 50: An Interview with Paul Ortiz, Part 2
Podcasts
Documentaries
Civil rights--Florida
Reconstruction
Voting rights
Segregation--Florida
Episode 50, Part 2 of RICHES Podcast Documentaries: An Interview with Paul Ortiz. RICHES Podcast Documentaries are short form narrative documentaries that explore Central Florida history and are locally produced. These podcasts can involve the participation or cooperation of local area partners.<br /><br /><span>Episode 50 features an interview with Paul Ortiz, an historian at the University of Florida and author of </span><em>Emancipation Betrayed: The Hidden History of Black Organizing and White Violence in Florida from Reconstruction to the Bloody Election of 1920</em><span>, which chronicles the history of African-Americans organizing in Florida after the end of slavery.</span>
Cravero, Geoffrey
Original 18-minute and 17-second podcast by Geoffrey Cravero, February 26, 2013: "RICHES Podcast Documentaries, Episode 50: An Interview with Paul Ortiz, Part 2." <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/podcastsblog.php" target="_blank">RICHES Podcast Documentaries</a>, Orlando, Florida.
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES</a>
Ortiz, Paul
audio/mp3
eng
Sound/Podcast
Pensacola, Florida
Tampa, Florida
Samuel Proctor Oral History Program, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida