Institution

Robert Lee Jennings was killed in a car crash when he was 17. He was one of four passengers in a vehicle that overturned rounding a curve just after midnight in the fishing village of Mayport. Jennings was thrown from the vehicle and pronounced dead at Jacksonville's Memorial Hospital at 1:16 am. The other passengers suffered minor injuries. The driver of the vehicle was charged with DWI and reckless driving. Jennings was laid to rest about a week later. Two of his brothers, David and Paul, served as pallbearers. His sister, Doris Ann Jennings Pendleton (1954-2011) is also buried in Section Jennings' grandparents once lived across the street from the historic Oakland Cemetery in southeast Atlanta and known for its numerous sacred sculptures.

Photo of the deceased's granite marker in the shape of a surfboard.

Robert Lee Jennings was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 11, 1958. He attended Fletcher Junior High School and is memorialized at Warren Smith Cemetery by a granite marker in the shape of a surfboard. The marker, which sits atop a flat granite pedestal in Section J, is emblazoned with a photo of the deceased and the inscription “Loving memory of our son and brother.” He was the third child of James Thomas "J.T." Jennings, a Yellow Cab driver and dispatcher in Jacksonville Beach, and Mary Lou Jennings.

Robert Lee Jennings

Warren Smith Cemetery dates back to the late 19th century and the 26-acre burial ground was reportedly expanded in the late 1980s and early 1990s. By 2006, nearly all of its 5,000 gravesites were sold. The municipal cemetery is named after H. Warren Smith, the mayor of Pablo Beach in 1914 and city engineer of Jacksonville Beach from 1925 until his death at age 63 in 1936. Smith plotted much of the cemetery, which has 11 sections, A through L with Section A being the oldest. There is no section I. All graves face to the East, toward the "new day" and the "rising sun," a tradition that goes back to the Egyptians and Greeks who worshiped the sun god. Among the most famous persons buried there are former CBS newsman George Syvertsen, former Yale University football coach Herman Hickman and John F. Kennedy's right-hand man on PT 109, John A. Maguire.

One of two municipal cemeteries in Jacksonville Beach, the 26-acre H. Warren Smith Memorial Cemetery is located at 1538 North Second Avenue. The land was used as a cemetery from the area’s earliest inception in the late 1880s, when the town was named Ruby Beach. Local lore has it that the first burial in the town was here and was the unidentified body of a man who washed ashore. A large memorial to the 1888-1889 victims of a yellow fever pandemic was erected in 1979, referring to the belief that a mass internment occurred here in the town then known as Pablo Beach. Burials continued in the area, but it did not become a public cemetery until the 1920s, by which time the town was known as Jacksonville Beach. Former Mayor H. Warren Smith arranged for the donation of the land. Until the 1960s, Caucasian Americans were buried at this cemetery and African Americans were buried across the street at the Lee Kirkland Cemetery.

Hammond, who was born in Orlando, Florida, on Feb. 21, 1931, was stationed in Guam when the Korean War broke out in 1950. He served as a mortar man in a Marine Corps rifle company during the infamous Chosin Reservoir Campaign in North Korea. He was wounded in action on November 3, 1950, while assigned to Item Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, at Sudong, Korea, but recovered and was returned to his unit the same month. He was listed as missing in action on Dec. 6, 1950, and was officially declared dead in December 1953. In 1956, a finding of non-recoverability of remains was issued by the Board of Officers. He is memorialized in the cemetery with a marker located near the grave of his mother, Georgia Hammond.

Pfc. Phillip Hammond was a Florida native who attended Fletcher High School where he played football before joining the Marine Corps in May 1948. He is one of 8,000 Americans listed as Missing in Action from the Korean War. In 2022, a street sign was placed in his honor in the 400 block of 3rd Street South in Jacksonville Beach, near his wartime home of record.

PFC Phillip Oliver Hammond

Brianna was born on June 4, 1983, and attended Darnell Cookman Middle School in Jacksonville, Florida, where she was a member of the National Junior Honor Society. She played soccer for Darnell Cookman Middle and on a 15-and-under travel team. Her father, Dr. Stephen T. Hickey, a former physician’s assistant who competed in the 1968 Olympic Trials in track and field and for Georgetown University, also died unexpectantly at age 52 and is buried beside his daughter. Brianna Hickey’s headstone is made of polished black granite and is inscribed with a silhouette of a girl playing soccer while wearing the No. 8 jersey.

Brianna Marie Hickey was an Atlantic Beach resident who contracted meningococcal meningitis in the eighth grade and died on Dec. 31, 1996, at age 13. She is buried in Section J of the cemetery and is survived by her mother, Caroline, and siblings Ryan, Connor and Shea. A memorial vaccination fund was created in her name at the University of Oxford.

Brianna Marie Hickey 

Hughie and his wife, Oleta, lived in their Durbin Creek cabin for the first 12 years of their marriage. They lost all their savings in the Stock Market Crash of 1929, so Hugie resorted to selling moonshine until Prohibition ended in 1933. In 1937, the couple bought Oleta's family dairy farm and homestead in what is now South Jacksonville Beach, which had no electricity, telephone or indoor plumbing and raised hogs and cut palm trees and sold them to local nurseries. In 1945, they mortgaged their home and land to buy a grocery store in Jacksonville Beach. In 1955, they managed a 28-unit apartment complex in Jacksonville Beach and sold their estate in 1963. Hughie died on July 2, 1987, at the age of 88.

Hugie Oesterreicher was born Sept. 24, 1898, in Palm Valley, Florida, and is buried in Section D of the cemetery. He married Oleta Brown in 1927. A book about their hardscrabble life, “Pioneer Family,” Life on Florida’s 20th Century Frontier,” by their daughter, Michel Oesterreicher, was published in 2016 by the University of Alabama Press.

Hugie Oesterreicher

Sgt. Pierce was killed in combat on Feb. 22, 1969, at the age 20, while attempting to save a wounded paratrooper in his squad. For his heroic actions, he was posthumously awarded the Silver Star and posthumously promoted to staff sergeant. His young wife, Janet, and son were living on Hopkins Street in Neptune Beach at the time of his death. A street sign on the corner of Hopkins and 3rd Street North was dedicated in his memory in December 2022. His polished granite headstone at Warren Smith Cemetery is engraved with the epitaph, “To the world he was just one, but to me he was the whole world.”

One of 11 children, Jody Pierce dropped out of Andrew Jackson High School to support his family before enlisting in the U.S. Army at 19, volunteering for the paratroopers after boot camp. He served with the Army's famed 173rd Airborne Brigade, which made the only combat jump during the Vietnam War.

Joseph H. "Jody" Pierce Jr.

William Lester Robinson was the first Korean War casualty from the Jacksonville Beaches. A heavy weapons infantryman who manned a 30-caliber machine gun, Pfc. Robinson was mortally wounded on Aug. 10, 1950, after coming to the aid of two of his fellow soldiers and engaging the enemy in hand-to-hand combat. For his gallantry in action, the 19-year-old soldier received the Silver Star Medal (posthumously) and the Purple Heart. The medals were awarded to his parents during a ceremony at the Jacksonville Beach Community Center in 1951. His upright marble headstone is one of many in the military section of the cemetery.

William Lester Robinson grew up in East Mayport and dropped out of Fletcher High School to join the Army in 1948.He was one of 11 siblings and the oldest of three brothers. His cousin, Harold Eugene Owens, was killed in Vietnam in 1968 and is buried in the military section of the cemetery.

William L. Robinson

Known as a woman of letters, Mrs. McCondichieshe earned a bachelor’s degree from Peabody College and a master’s degree in speech from Columbia University at a time when women barely had earned the right to vote. A public-school teacher, “Mrs. Mac” gave private elocution lessons in her oceanfront Jacksonville Beach home. During World War II, she served as the Beaches columnist for the Florida Times-Union and became the first female publisher of a newspaper at the Beaches in the late 1950s. She also served as the first president of the Jacksonville Beach Woman’s Club. In 2013, the historic Beaches Museum Chapel was dedicated in her honor.

Frances Hawks deYampert McCondichie was born in Perry County, Alabama, in 1890, and moved to Jacksonville Beach in the early 1930s with her husband, Herbert, an automobile dealer. The couple had five children. "Mrs. Mac," as she was affectionately known, taught drama in St. Augustine and wrote a social column for the Florida Times-Union newspaper.

Frances Hawks deYampert McCondichie

George and his wife, Julia, were true believers in the Harley brand. Julia was involved with all aspects of the business and participated in local women's motorcycle clubs, even winning a trophy for riding skills at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. In 1962, Adamec relocated his family-owned business to Jacksonville. Julia died on July 9, 1985, at the age of 70. Before he died in 1974, George Sr. handed over the business to his sons. By 2019, Adamec Harley Davidson had expanded to four locations in Northeast Florida. Today, his grandsons, Mark and Chris Adamec, run the business.

George A. Adamec (1909-1974), whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Czechoslovakia, was born in Long Island, New York, on Aug. 16, 1909, and started repairing bicycles and motorcycles at an early age. When he was 21, Adamec opened his first motorcycle dealership in Elizabeth, New Jersey, with an investment of $500.

George A. Adamec Sr.

Issac Newton Wingate Jr. served as a private in the 2nd Florida Calvary from 1862 to1865 during the Civil War. He fought in the Battle of Olustee on Feb. 20, 1864, in Baker County, Florida. Wingate’s upright marble headstone in Section A of the cemetery, which identifies him as a Civil War veteran, is one of the oldest in the cemetery. Wingate Park, a municipal recreational sports park in Jacksonville Beach, is named after his grandson, Wilson C. Wingate, a former city manager of Jacksonville Beach. Issac Wingate's son, Walter B. Wingate, was a well-known hunting and fishing guide at the Beaches.

Issac Newton Wingate Jr. was born in Nassau County, Florida, and his family, who were in the timber business, were early settlers of the town of Yulee. In 1873, Wingate settled in Ruby Beach or what is now Jacksonville Beach with his wife, Henrietta, a midwife who delivered the children of many pioneer Beach families. The couple had nine children, including Minnie Wingate, who died in 1899 at age 10.

Issac Newton Wingate

Asbury Fletcher Brown was an early Beaches settler who came to Florida from South Georgia in the late 1850s and acquired several acres of land south of Jacksonville Beach. When the Civil War broke out, he joined the Florida Partisan Rangers, an independent band of the Confederate Army who ambushed Union gunboats along the St. Johns River. In 1863, he was captured by Union forces and spent 22 months as a prisoner of war at the infamous federal prison at Fort Delaware. After the war, Brown returned to his wife and five children to raise cattle and produce turpentine on his Pablo Beach homestead. He died of consumption.

Asbury Fletcher Brown is buried in Section A of the cemetery and his upright marble headstone is one of the oldest in the cemetery. He was born in Vienna, Georgia, and married Elinor Dickinson of Charleston, South Carolina, on Oct. 3,1849. They had five children. He was listed as a farmer in the 1850 Census.

 Asbury Fletcher Brown 

Jarboe served as town marshal of Neptune Beach for 38 years. In Jarboe’s day, the town marshal also served as the fire chief, public works director and city manager. Jarboe’s wife, Olive, used to answer the emergency phone when Jim was out on patrol. To summon him back to the station, she would turn on a red light atop city hall. This was back before police cars had radios.During her husband’s decades-long tenure as town marshal, Olive served on and off as the city clerk of Neptune Beach. The couple had two children, Jim Jr. and Judi. Jim Jarboe Jr. worked briefly as a patrolman for his father after graduating from the University of Ga. Jim Jarboe Jr. went on to work in the administration of two Jacksonville mayors and was city manager of both Atlantic Beach and Neptune Beach.Jarboe lived on a ground floor apartment on First Street or what is now City Hall. A nearby barn housed their cow, a horse Jim rode on the beach and their chickens. During 1940s and ‘50s, Jim and Olive hosted children’s movie night every Friday at City Hall. Admission was free along with popcorn and bottles of Coke. The 16 mm movies were mostly westerns.When Jarboe saw a photo of Duke Kahanamoku riding waves in Hawaii, he came up with the specs for his own wooden surfboard and had Charlie Creech of Ed Smith Lumber Company build it for him. The 20-foot-long board didn’t have fins so Jim would drag one foot to steer it in the ocean. He also used it as a rescue board on the oceanfront. A photo of Jarboe and Creech standing with the board on the beach was taken in the 1940s and is part of the Beach Museum’s collection.Jarboe also raced motorcycles at Daytona and wrestled alligators, including one he captured from the pond at what is now Jarboe Park. He and Jack Russell, the police chief of Atlantic Beach from 1931-1961, were great friends. Russell also had a park dedicated in his honor in 1966.During the Christmas holidays, Jarboe used to hand out oranges to children from his police car. The annual Christmas tradition continues to this day with a Neptune Beach police car pulling a trailer with Santa and Mrs. Claus through the streets of Neptune Beach.In the early 1960s, Jarboe’s beloved Great Dane, Shadow, was one of the area’s first K-9 patrol officers. Jarboe would unleash the dog at night in the business district. Shadow Lane off Penman Road and Seagate Avenue was named in the dog’s memory because that’s where Shadow used to do his business. When Jarboe died of cancer in 1974, he was succeeded by his right-hand deputy Howard Basil, a retired Navy veteran. In 1984, a park across from Beaches Chapel was dedicated in Basil’s honor.

James Richard Jarboe Sr. was born in West Virginia in 1906 and his father, James G. Jarboe, was a veteran of the Spanish American War. The Jarboe family moved to Jacksonville sometime before 1910. Before he succeeded Pete Jensen of Pete’s Bar fame as Neptune Beach town marshal in 1936, Jarboe worked for the State Road Department, the forerunner of the Florida Highway Patrol.

Marshal James R. Jarboe Sr.

Maguire served as the radioman on PT 109 when it was sliced in two and sunk by a Japanese destroyer. After the crew of PT 109 was rescued, Maguire joined Kennedy on PT Boat 59. He went on to work on JFK’s congressional campaigns and in 1952 opened a Citizens for Kennedy campaign office in Jacksonville Beach prior to the 1960 presidential election. In 1961, President Kennedy appointed Maguire as the U.S. Marshal for the Middle District of Florida. Maguire served with the U.S. Marshals service until 1968. He died suddenly in 1990 at age 74. His grave at Warren Smith Cemetery is marked by a large Celtic cross.

John Edward Maguire grew up in Dobbs Ferry, New York, where he was a football and baseball star in high school, and followed his younger brother, Bill, into the U.S. Navy during World War II. Maguire was 26 years old when he was assigned to PT Boat 109 on May 5, 1943, which was under the command of then Lt. John F. Kennedy, the future president of the United States.

John E. Maguire

Bostian spent 42 months as a Prisoner of War during World War II. He was starved, beaten and tortured and his laundry list of prison ailments included beriberi, malaria and pneumonia. He was imprisoned at the infamous Sendai No. 3 lead and zinc mine in Hosokura, Japan, before being liberated in August 1945. After his decorated military service, Bostian, a Silver Star recipient, opened the first Dairy Queen at the Beaches in 1959. He ran the 3rd Street North franchise until the late 1960s. He and his wife, Pauline, an Arkansas native like himself, were married for 65 years.

Lester "Mickey" Bostian spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy, retiring as a master chief petty officer in 1959. He was a prisoner of war from 1942-1945 and was stationed as a tugboat captain at Mayport Naval Station in the late 1950s. He was a 54-year resident of Jacksonville Beach.

Lester "Mickey" Bostian

Mrs. Durante, who was born in Fisk, Missouri, was very active in Duval County politics, having run campaigns for many Republican candidates at the Beaches, including former Jacksonville mayor and UNF president John Delaney. She was a member of Neptune Beach Baptist Church, and died following routine surgery at St. Luke’s Hospital at age 56. She is survived by three sons, Peter, Jeffrey and Joseph; and eight grandchildren. The Durante headstone is one of the largest at the cemetery. The plot also includes a bronze government marker indicating that Peter Durante served in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War era.

A distant cousin of 20th century entertainer Jimmy Durante, Peter Gabriel Durante was an Atlantic Beach resident who founded a credit services business in Jacksonville and was a 20-year veteran of the Air Force. His wife of 42 years, Dosa Marie, was a mother of three and a grandmother of eight.

Peter and Dosa Durante

Wendy Jean Perry was born on November 17, 1950. Her family moved to Neptune Beach in 1952, the year polio cases soared in the United States. Wendy contracted the infectious disease, also known as infantile paralysis, in 1953 and was paralyzed from the neck down. She attended San Pablo Elementary in her wheelchair and despite not being able to walk or use her hands, with the exception of a few fingers, Wendy was an amazing student who could draw, mold clay figures, and even sew on a machine. She also sang in the St. Paul's-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church choir, according to her older sister, Dr. Nancy Perry, a 1964 Fletcher High School Graduate. At 3, Wendy was treated at the same polio rehab facility in Warm Springs, Ga., founded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1927. She lived to the age of 12, dying on August 5th, 1963. She was buried three days later. A standing-room-only crowd attended her memorial service at the Beaches Chapel.

Wendy Jean Perry

Weighing in at more than 300 pounds, Hickman was known for his prodigious appetite and as a keynote speaker on the sports banquet circuit. A native of Johnson City, Tennessee, Hickman graduated from high school at 16 and from college with honors when he was 20. He played professional football for the NFL's Brooklyn Dodgers for three years (1932-34) and coached linemen at West Point from 1943-1947 under legendary head coach Red Blaik. He retired from coaching in 1951 and played the role of fictious football coach Jumbo Caldwell in the 1953 movie "All American" starring Tony Curtis and Frank Gifford. At the time of his death at age 46 from a severe gastric ulcer, he owned a vacation home in Ponte Vedra Beach.

Herman Michael Hickman Jr. (1911-1958) was a nationally known sports personality in the 1950s who hosted his own talk show on CBS Radio and was a contributing editor for Sports Illustrated magazine. A former college and NFL football star in the 1930s, Hickman coached college football at four different schools, including West Point and was the head coach of Yale University from 1948-1951. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1959.

Herman Hickman

Peter B. Jensen, the founder of Pete’s Bar in Neptune Beach, was born in Denmark in 1882 and immigrated to the U.S.in 1901 when he was 20 years old. Pete became a naturalized citizen in 1924. He ran a grocery store in a section of Harlem with his English-born wife, Alice, before relocating to Jacksonville, where he operated a grocery store on Main Street from 1919-1921. Later in the 1920s, he opened Jensen’s Market in what was then Atlantic Beach. Pete’s was the first drinking establishment to open in Duval County after Prohibition was repealed. Pete’s son, William Beck "Pete" Jensen, ran Pete’s Bar until his death in 1979. William's wife, Clara, operated it until 1999 when William’s granddaughter, Nancy Jensen, took over. Pete's Bar was reportedly sold for upwards of $10 million in 2021.

Pete Jensen, the original proprietor of Pete's Bar in Neptune Beach, is buried in Section D of the cemetery, next to his wife, Alice Lily Jensen. Pete opened his famous watering hole, located one block from the Atlantic Ocean, in 1933. He tore down three tourist cottages he owned on First Street to build the one-story concrete block bar, which was formally known as the Jensen Building in the 1940s. Pete also served as the assistant fire chief of Neptune Beach as late as 1955 and was a past president of the Atlantic Beach/Neptune Beach Lions Club. According to his obit, Pete passed away at Beaches Hospital, following a lengthy illness.

Peter B. Jensen

GONZALES, Anthony Manuel, b. 1875 d. 1954 (AC45-4) Anthony Gonzales was born in Florida to a father from Spain and a mother from Florida. On January 27, 1904 he married Nettie Rivers Tharp of North Carolina in Brunswick, North Carolina. It is known that James moved here between 1888-1890, but it is unclear when Anthony originally moved here. By 1910, Anthony and his brother, James, had indeed both moved to Pablo Beach, where they lived next to each other. Anthony, or “Tony” as he was known, operated a plumbing business with James until James went to work full time for the city of Jacksonville Beach. On his 1918 draft registration card, Anthony listed his permanent address as Pablo Beach, which is where his wife was then residing. He listed his current address, however, as New York City where he was working as a plumber. He was described as 5’7” with Black hair and brown eyes. The couple was listed in the 1920, 1935 and 1940 U.S. Census as residents of Jacksonville Beach. They were living in Brooklyn, New York in 1930, where Anthony was working as a plumber. Later in life, Anthony was also the plumbing inspector of Jacksonville Beach.

Anthony Manuel Gonzales, b. 1875 d. 1954 (A-C4-5-4) 

GONZALES, Nettie Rivers, b. 1883 d. 1970 (A-C4-5-3) Nettie Rivers Tharp Gonzales was born in North Carolina, the daughter of Henry Y. and Lainie Tharp (both born in North Carolina according to the 1900 U.S. Census). She married Anthony Gonzales in Brunswick, North Carolina on January 27, 1904. By 1910, the couple had moved to Pablo Beach and had two daughters, Evelyn and Alma. The same family combination was listed in the 1920 Pablo Beach U.S. Census. In 1930, they were living in Brooklyn, New York with two daughters listed as Alma and Dolores. They were back in Jacksonville Beach by 1935, without either daughter.

Nettie Rivers Gonzales, b. 1883 d. 1970 (A-C4-5-3) 

James and Celania Dickerson were among the first residents to permanently live at Pablo Beach. They were beach pioneers; their house was the second building in town.Celania Dickerson was not the first postmistress at Pablo Beach, but she ran the first post office. The previous postmistress was Eleanor Scull, wife of civil engineer William Scull, whose postal service was housed in a tent on the beach, and later Murray Hall Hotel. When Celania took over as postmistress, Murray Hall Hotel had burned down and the first post office building had been established on the beach at Second Street and First Avenue North. Celania was the postmistress from 1886 to 1909.In addition to serving indispensably as the postmistress for the small but growing town of Pablo Beach, Celania also regularly contributed poetry to the town's first print newspaper, the Pablo Breeze. During this time, Pablo Beach had few permanent residents, as many visitors only stayed at the beach for the summer season. Celania's personal experience with the seasonally fluctuating population of the beach is reflected in a poem she published under her pen name "Sad C" in 1897, entitled "Thoughts on the Past."Tis the last days of SummerWe'r now spending here,Soon the beach will be lonelyDeserted and drear.

Claude A. Dickerson - (1870-1888). Section A, block C3, lot 10A, grave 4.Minnie M. Dickerson - (1869-1963). Section A, block C3, lot 10A, grave 8.James Edward Dickerson - (1841-1914). Section A, block C3, lot 10A, grave 7.Celania Dickerson - (1844-1939).James Dickerson was born in Maryland in 1841. In the 1880 U.S. Census, he and his wife, Celania Columbia Hurd Dickerson were living in Menard, Illinois and working as farmers. They listed one son, Claude, age 9.The Dickersons moved to Pablo Beach by 1887. In the 1900 U.S. Census, he listed his occupation as grocer. In that document, they report having had two children. The Dickersons’ store was located on what is now First Avenue North in Jacksonville Beach.James Dickerson served on the first city council in 1907 and was elected mayor in 1910. Celania Dickerson served as postmistress and contributed poetry to the local newspaper, The Pablo Beach Breeze, under the pen name, "Sad C." Her post office is now in the History Park at Beaches Museum.

Dickerson Family

DICKERSON, Infant, d. 1897 "May an Angels Voice Be Heard" (AC310A-4), "Infant of Claude &amp; Minnie" The record of Florida marriages includes a Duval County marriage between C.A. Dickerson and Minnie N. Hatch on March 18, 1897. They may be the parents of this infant. No other information has yet been found.

Infant Dickerson, d. 1897 (A-C3-10A-4)

Claude A. Dickerson was married to Minnie Dickerson and the couple had one child who died in 1897. According to Webb's Jacksonville Directory, a Claude A. Dickerson was listed as a painter. Dickerson died at his Pablo Beach home of inflammation of the bowels, his Find a Grave page said. He is believed to be one of the first Pablo Beach residents buried in what was then known as Pablo Cemetery.

DICKERSON, Claude A., b. Sep 21, 1871, d. Dec 9, 1898 (AC35A-8)Claude A. Dickerson was born in Petersburg, Illinois, and presumably moved to Pablo Beach, Florida, with his parents in the 1880s. He was the son of James Edward Dickerson of Maryland and Celenia Columbia Hurd Dickerson of Illinois. James E. Dickerson was listed as a grocer in 1900 while residing in Pablo Precinct II and as a Jacksonville real estate agent in 1910. The Dickersons were among the earliest settlers of Pablo Beach (renamed Jacksonville Beach in 1925), and considered pioneer residents of Florida, according to Mrs. Dickerson's 1936 obit.

Claude A. Dickerson, b. Sep 21 1871 d. Dec 9 1898 (A-C3-5A-8)

Oleta married Hugie Oesterreicher in Holy Rosary Catholic Church on Laura Street. The property, which was built in 1923 and dedicated in 1924, is one of Jacksonville's few standing Romanesque Revival buildings. It was designed by architect James R. Walsh, and is on the National Registry of Historic Places. As of March 2023, traditional ecclesiastically-accurate restoration of the church building is underway. Funding has been provided by the congregation of St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church.In 1929, Oleta lost her savings to the bank failure of Jacksonville Beach Bank. Small banks were the first to suspend operations during the onset of the economic downswing that would become the Great Depression. Like Oleta, many irretrievably lost their savings in bank failures during this time.During the depression, Oleta's small family bootlegging operation was only one of many. While figures like Elizabeth "Betty" Hill and Ethel Evans paint a perilous and glamorous picture of women in bootlegging, the typical female bootlegger was much more like Oleta, a working-class woman with multiple children.During the second World War, Oleta opened and ran a grocery store. At this time, many women who had never worked professionally entered the workforce to compensate for the labor shortage left by men who went to war. Oleta's particular venture was spurred by wartime restlessness following grief for loved ones lost in the war. One such loved one, Oleta's nephew Bob Brown, was declared missing, but returned home safely after the war's end.

Oleta Brown Oesterreicher - (1908-1986). Section D, block 3, lot 1A, grave 3.Oleta Oesterreicher née Brown was born in 1908 to Tom and Annie Brown. She grew up on their family dairy farm and lived there until her marriage to Hugher "Hugie" Oesterreicher. The two married at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in 1927.In 1929, they each lost their life savings to bank failures, those of Jacksonville Beach and St. Augustine banks, two of many in a steep economic decline that culminated in the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression.Oleta and Hugie managed to live off the profits of Hugie's hunting, trapping, and foraging until summer 1932. Between then and the end of Prohibition in 1933, the couple turned to bootlegging to make ends meet while Oleta was pregnant with her third child.When World War II began in 1939, Oleta, who celebrated the first Armistice Day as a child and had never known anyone on the front lines of the first World War, saw family, friends, and acquaintances enlist and leave the Beaches.Mere months before the end of the war in 1945, she and Hugie opened Oesterreicher's Grocery on the corner of First Street and Sixteenth Avenue South. She ran the grocery store until 1954, when it was leased and eventually sold.Oleta passed in 1986 after a period of illness."She seized life in her later years with enthusiasm; everything she did, she loved." - Michel Oesterreicher.

Oleta Brown Oesterreicher

Tokutaro Takami left Hiroshima in 1900 and entered the United States by way of Seattle, Washington and settled in Brooklyn, New York, with his in-laws, the Miyanagas. In 1906, his wife Shige and daughter Hatsu immigrated and the reunited Takami family joined their in-laws, the Miyanagas, in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1908, the Takamis and Miyanagas moved to Jacksonville.While the Miyanagas do not appear on the 1910 census and are likely to have departed from Florida, the Takamis made Jacksonville their home and their next four children were born there.Middle daughters Shizu, Yoshi, and Suye attended boarding school in Japan beginning in 1919. Their eldest, Hatsu, married Harry Kimuya. The Takamis and their new in-laws the Kimuras appear in the 1920 census for Pablo Beach, making them the only and earliest known Japanese families at the Beaches.In 1922, Tokutaro Takami opened Takami Department Store on 227 Pablo Avenue, offering "choice groceries at reasonable prices," such as a pound of rice or sugar for seven cents. Harry and Hatsu Kimura moved away by 1925, but again Tokutaru and Shige Takami stayed. Their middle daughters returned after cultural schooling and attended Jacksonville Beach Elementary, as did youngest son, Shigeo "Joe" Takami.By 1940, Shigeo graduated from the University of Florida and took over the family grocery store business with help from brother-in-law and former Donald Ikumo Oishi. In 1945, he joined the United States Army and served in Military Intelligence as a translator until 1947. One year later, he married Mitsuno "Mitsi" Tanaka. Together they managed Takami Apartments above their family store, which later became Benny's Snack Bar.

Tokutaru Takami (1869-1954). Section D, block 5, lot 11, grave 2.Shige Takami (1875-1950). Section D, Block 5, lot 11, grave 1.Shigeo (1916-2012) and Mitsuno (1923-1972) Takami. Section D, Block 5, lot 11, grave 3.Tokutaru and Shige Takami were the first recorded Japanese residents of the Jacksonville Beaches. They had five children: Hatsu, Shizu, Yoshi, Suye, and Shigeo, also known as Joe. Tokutaro and Shige Takami are memorialized here alongside their son Shigeo and his wife Mitsuno.While living in Jacksonville, Tokutaru operated a shooting gallery and later a general store. He eventually moved his family to Pablo Beach, where he opened a grocery store. After Shige's passing, Tokutaru returned to Japan, where he spent the remaining years of his life.Shigeo "Joe" Takami served in the United States Army during the second World War. After his period of service, he ran the family store until starting a bar at the same location with grocery business partner Benny Nishiyama. With his wife Mitsuno, Shigeo also opened Takami Apartments, located above the bar.

Takami Family

BLACKWELL, Mary E., b. Dec 25 1911 d. Aug 13 1991 (AC41-8), "Beloved Wife &amp; Partner, Mother &amp; Grandmother" Obituary from Florida Times-Union of August 15, 1991: Funeral services for Mrs. Mary E. Blackwell, 79, of 1716 North 8th Street, Jacksonville Beach, who died Tuesday, will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at the Chapel of George H. Hewell and Son, Southside Funeral Home, 4140 University Blvd. South, with Rev. Cynthia Robbins officiating. Pallbearers will be Victor Papa, Charles Wilson, Macon R. Ballentine, Jesse Keene, Doug Bell and Fred Lonberg. Honorary pallbearers will be Morocco Temple Oriental Band, the Potentates Aides and the OBAZ Club. Interment will be in the H. Warren Smith Cemetery. Mrs. Blackwell was a native of Atlanta, Ga. Residing at Jacksonville Beach for a number of years. She was a member of the Palms Presbyterian Church, Order of Easter Star, Daughters of the Nile, past-president of the OBA Club, and the Southern Bell Pioneers. She is survived by her husband, Ralph Blackwell; 3 daughters, Jean Bogar, Ella Johnson and Dr. Linda Ford-Dennis; a son, Norman R. Blackwell, a brother, Wesley R. Millican; 9 grandchildren, Margaret and Rhonda Vick, Chery Michaud, Brian R. and Craig A. Johnson, Deidra R. Christensen, Wendolyn Watson, Timothy and Mark Blackwell, and 7 great-grandchldren…”

Mary E. Blackwell, b. Dec 25 1911 d. Aug 13 1991 (A-C4-1-8)

Arthur G. Penman was a transplanted Canadian and a pioneer Beaches real estate developer best known for developing the Pine Grove and Neptune Grove subdivisions in Jacksonville Beach and Neptune Beach, respectively.He was born in 1883 in a suburb of Ottawa, the son of a Presbyterian minister. He was educated at staunchly Presbyterian Pictou Academy in Nova Scotia.In 1907, two years after he graduated from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Penman married 18-year-old Rive Regis Tefft of Toronto. The couple had three daughters, Margery, Rive Marguerite and Elizabeth (nicknamed Betty).Before he moved to Florida, Penman dabbled in silver mines and investment securities in Canada and oil in Oklahoma. In 1924, while operating as a broker for a Miami businessman, Penman made a successful bid on more than 120,000 acres of property west of Green Cove Springs, which later became Penney Farms. This in all likelihood is how he got his first glimpse of the Jacksonville area.His headstone says he came to the Beaches in the 1920s, but according to the late Beaches historian Don Mabry, Penman wrote on his sworn naturalization application that he permanently moved to the U.S. on Nov. 7, 1931, crossing the border at Buffalo with his wife and their three girls.There were only 1,500 or so people living at the Beaches when Penman arrived here. Penman wasted no time getting his real estate business up and running, establishing the Beaches Sales Corp. on Dec. 9, 1931.Much of the land he would develop was essentially part of a Spanish land grant. In 1936, he built a 3-bedroom, 2200-square-foot house at 1001 Florida Blvd. for about $3,000. The house is situated about a block east of Penman Road and today is worth an estimated $450,000.In 1939, Penman created another corporation called the Jacksonville Beaches Co. with his youngest daughter Betty serving as the president.In 1942, Betty fell in a love with a young British airman who was training at NAS Jacksonville. When “Tony” Casey returned to England in 1943, he told his brother he almost got hitched in the states.On Dec. 17, 1943, Tony wrote to Betty, asking her to say a prayer for him and to sing their song “Silver Wings in the Moonlight” as he was heading off on a bombing mission over Germany. A week later, on Dec. 24, 1943, Tony’s parents received a telegram informing them that their 23-year-old son was reported missing in action and presumed dead, along with six other members of his air crew. A total of 75,000 British airmen were killed, wounded or taken prisoner in WWII.Pine Grove in Jacksonville Beach was Penman’s largest real estate development with more than 75 homes stretching from 2nd Avenue North to 7th Avenue North.Penman advertised that he owned more land than anyone else at the beach. But he was not the first Canadian to become a major Beaches land baron. Harcourt Bull came to Jacksonville in 1913 and developed much of what is now Atlantic Beach.Penman became a U.S. citizen on Dec. 17, 1943, and was a member of the Rotary Club, the Ponte Vedra Club and the Jacksonville Beach Chamber of Commerce. He also served as vice commodore of the Jacksonville Beaches Yacht and Fishing Club.In Canada, Penman was active in motorboat races, but fishing was his favorite pastime. It was said that Penman knew every fishing hole worth knowing in the state, from Mayport to the Florida Keys. In 1943, he reeled in a 123-pound tarpon from the St. Johns River. At the time, it was the largest tarpon ever caught on a 15-pound line, according to Field &amp; Stream magazine. He surpassed that feat in 1949 when he landed a 172-pound tarpon from the St. Johns.Penman died at his Neptune Beach home on June 9, 1966. He was 83. Sometime in the late 1930s or early 1940s, B.B. McCormick cut a road between Neptune Beach and Jacksonville Beach, naming it in Penman’s honor.

Arthur Penman (1885-1966) was a Canadian who moved to the Beaches in the 1920s during the Florida land boom when land was cheap. He purchased a Spanish land grant comprising nearly all the property between 10th Street North and 6th Street Avenue South in Jacksonville Beach, including railroad right-of-way now known as Beach Boulevard. The Ottawa native developed some of the first subdivisions in Neptune and Jacksonville Beach. A street named in his honor (Penman Road) runs through both communities. He was also a noted local fisherman who once caught a 172-pound tarpon in the St. Johns River on 39-pound test line. The catch was considered a world record at the time. He died June 9, 1966, at his Neptune Beach home on Florida Boulevard at the age of 83.

Arthur G. Penman 

Basil was the son of George T. Basil, the fire marshal of Annapolis, Maryland, in 1922. A pipefitter for most of his working life, Basil was employed at the Navy Yard and at the U.S. Naval Academy. His son, Howard C. Basil Jr., a 20-year Navy veteran, served as police chief of Neptune Beach until his death in 1984. A small park in Neptune Beach is dedicated to Basil Jr.'s memory.

BASIL, Howard C., b. 1901 d. 1967 (F35-2) Obituary from Florida Times-Union of August 31, 1967: "Howard C. Basil, Sr., 66, of 301 2nd St., Neptune Beach, died Tuesday. He was born in Annapolis, Md., and came here in 1961. Prior to his retirement in 1954, he was employed at the US Naval Academy for 35 years. Survivors include Mrs. Evelyn Basil; a daughter, Mrs. Sally Patrick; a son, Howard C. Basil, Jr., and three grandchildren…:

Howard C. Basil Sr., b. 1901 d. 1967 (F35-2) 

On January 21, 1926, Adams married Mable Dean in Jacksonville, Florida. On the Record of Marriages and Licenses, Adams’ occupation was listed as stevedore. Adams listed his occupation as truck driver on the 1930 United States Census of Jacksonville. According to the 1935 Florida State Census, he was living with his father, William Sr.; his mother, Annie; his wife, Mable; his brother, Benjamin; and his sister-in-law, Mable C. at 817 Ruth St., Jacksonville Beach, Florida. Adams listed his occupation as city clerk. On a Marriage License Application dated June 23, 1938, Adams listed his first wife as deceased. He then married Magolene Tucker in a ceremony officiated by Rev. J. F. Sorrelo on June 23, 1938 in Jacksonville, Florida. On the 1940 United States Census of Jacksonville Beach, Adams listed his occupation as foreman. According to the 1945 Florida State Census, his residence was 1304 N 1st Ave., Jacksonville Beach, Florida and his occupation was listed as road engineer.

William Jacklen Adams, Jr. was born in Florida, the son of William J. Adams Sr. and Annie E. Adams on January 5, 1901. The 1910 United States Census of Jacksonville, Florida shows the family also included Leonard, Clemmie, Lillie, Rule, Margaret, and Benjamin. William Sr.’s occupation was liquor store shipping clerk.

William J. Adams, b. January 5, 1901 d. May 8, 1976 (F-3-2-6)

After the numerous bank failures of the Great Depression, the Beaches area was left with a dearth of extant financial institutions. Although banking was considered a precarious business at that time, the Beach Bank opened to serve the community when it was left without a major financial institution. The bank was able to flourish in the late depression recovery years, thanks to the measures established by New Deal programs. Because the New Deal made banking safer and more reliable overall, Beaches residents were able to rebuild their trust in local banking institutions.Programs such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation made banking more secure for all involved parties. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was instituted with the Glass-Steagall Banking Act of 1933.From that point on, bank runs became much less likely because of the new separation of commercial and investment banking. Ordinary depositors' savings could no longer be used for speculative investing. Because of this change, bank failures became uncommon after 1933.The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation also protected depositors by insuring the depositor in the event of their bank's failure, something that would have been a major concern for anyone who lost their savings in one of the many bank failures of the Great Depression.While the investing constraints of the Glass-Steagall Banking Act became less applicable as banking evolved and the act itself was formally repealed in 1999, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation remains and deposit insurance has consistently protected depositors in American commercial banking since 1933.

Frederick Cook Allen - (1890-1977). Section F, block 4, lot 5A, grave 4.Fred C. Allen, a founding member of The Beach Bank, which opened in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, on Sept. 10, 1938, came from a banking family. His father, John L. Allen, was a bank cashier in Brunswick, Georgia, and Fred's older brother, Linton Allen, was president of the First National Bank of Orlando in 1942 and state chairman of the Defense Savings Commission. Fred worked his way up from bank clerk in Brunswick in the 1910s to cashier of a Transfer Co. in Orlando by 1930. An assistant paymaster in the Navy during World War I, Allen worked for the Federal Housing Authority in 1938 before starting The Beach Bank.When The Beach Bank first opened on the corner of Second Street and Pablo Avenue it had only two employees: Allen, the bank's president, and John Pyatt, the cashier, teller, and bookkeeper. By 1955, The Beach Bank employed more than 15 people. Allen and Pyatt were still at The Beach Bank when the leading institution celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1963. The bank's slogan was "Complete Banking Facilities for All the Beaches."

Frederick Cook Allen

Obituary from March 6 and 7, 1990 Florida Times-Union: “Annie Dean Atkinson Allen, Atlantic Beach, passed away March 3, 1990. She was born in Brunswick, Ga., on November 28, 1891, the daughter of Dr. Dean Dunwody Atkinson and Sarah Hardee Scarlet Atkinson. She was preceded in death by her husband, Frederick Cook Allen, the Founder of First National Beach Bank; and is survived by a brother, Dean Dunwody Atkinson of Norfolk, Va; a daughter and son-in-law, Caroline and John Futch of Highlands, NC; a son and daughter-in-law, John David and Frances Jones Allen of Atlanta, Ga; a son, Fred Coney Allen of Atlantic Beach; 8 grandchildren; 4 great-grandchildren; 13 nieces and nephews; and a host of friends. She was a Communicant of St. Pauls By the Sea Episcopal Church, Jacksonville Beach and the Church of the Incarnation in Highlands, N.C….”

Annie Dean Atkinson Allen (F-4-5A-3)

SYVERTSEN, Olav, b. Sep 23 1905 d. Jun 8 1968 "Beloved Husband &amp; Father (F46-5) Olav and his wife, Ingrid emigrated from Norway to New York in the 1920s. In 1940, they were living in Brooklyn, NY with two children, George and Marie. In addition, they had a second son, Clifford in 1945 and a second daughter, Evelyn. They moved to Jacksonville Beach in 1951. In the 1956 city directory, Olav’s occupation was listed as captain at the Barlow Dredge AG&amp; P company. He worked to dredge the St. John’s River and Intracoastal Waterway. He and his wife lived at 522 North 8th Avenue in Jacksonville Beach at that time. Ingrid, George, and Clifford are also buried in this cemetery. Syvertsen's obituary in the June 13, 1968 Beaches Leader is as follows, " Olav T. Syvertsen, 62, of 522 8th Ave. No., Jax Beach, died June 8 in a local hospital following a lengthy illness. Mr. Syvertsen was born in Norway and had lived here 17 years, coming from Brooklyn, N.Y. He was a member of St. Andrews By-the-Sea Lutheran Church of Jacksonville Beach. Survivors are his wife, Mrs. Ingrid Syvertsen; 2 daughters, Mrs. Marie Hall of Woodbridge, Va and Miss Evelyn Syvertsen of Miami, Fla; 2 sons, George Syverstsen in Saigon and Clifford Syvertsen of Jax Beach; a sister, Miss Helen Syvertsen of Norway and 4 grandchildren...."

Olav Syvertsen, b. Sep 23 1905 d. Jun 8 1968 "Beloved Husband & Father (F-4-6-5)

The church that Tessie Louise belonged to, Beach Methodist Church, is notable for its formation occurring during the latter years of Methodist reunification.In 1844, with the Civil War looming on the horizon, the Northern and Southern Methodist church fractured over diverging opinions within the church on the topic of slavery. The resulting branches of the church remained estranged for decades until the schism finally healed on May 8th, 1939 with the Declaration of Union, a full seventy four years after the abolition of slavery in 1865. While the church still had progress to make on the front of integration, the reunification illustrates the long-lasting impact of the Reconstruction and Progresisve Eras on religious politics in America.Beach Methodist Church was established as Rising Tide Methodist Church in 1937. Local Methodists felt there was a need for a Methodist Church at the time there were no other Methodist churches at the Beaches then: the other churchesThe cornerstones of its original coquina building, which unfortunately no longer stands today, were laid on the corner of 7th Avenue and 4th Street North, Jacksonville Beach on May 27th, 1939, just nineteen days after the Declaration of Union, making it one of the first Methodist churches to be established after reunification--if not the very first, as newspapers alleged at the time.

Homer C. Arnett, Sr. - (1902-1978). Section F, block 4, lot 7 grave 1.Tessie Louise Arnett - (1908-1968). Section F, block 4, lot 6, grave 4.Homer Clinton Arnett was born in Kentucky, the son of Thomas E. and Blanche Elizabeth Moody Arnett (November 4, 1880—July 5, 1945). The 1910 U.S. Census of Henderson, Kentucky shows that the family included Thomas, Blanche, Homer, and Homer’s older brother. Thomas listed his occupation as a farmer.According to the 1920 U .S. Census, the family had moved to Jacksonville, Florida and was living on Riverside Avenue. Thomas listed his occupation as carpenter. The family included the parents, Thomas and two younger sisters, Elizabeth and Louise.Tessie Louise Haden was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1908. She moved to Jacksonville Beach in 1935 and soon married Homer Arnett in a ceremony officiated by Reverend Ernest Dieffenwierth. Their daughter Betty Tess was born in 1940. Homer listed his occupation as "Playground" on his 1942 WWII draft card.The 1945 Florida Census lists Homer and Tessie Arnett as living at 233 South First Street in Jacksonville Beach with their daughter. That year, Homer listed his occupation as a carpenter.According to the 1956 Jacksonville Beach City Directory, he was working as a janitor at Jacksonville Beach Elementary School #50 and the family lived at 608 Barbara Lane in Jacksonville Beach.Tessie Louise is remembered in her obituary as a member of the Beach Methodist Church and a member of its Women's Society of Christian Service. J.T. McCormick, mayor of Jacksonville Beach from 1953 to 1955, was a pallbearer at her funeral. Tessie Louise was known as "Aunt Tessie" to Jean and J.T. McCormick's youngest children.

Homer C. Arnett and Tessie Louise Haden

As a war correspondent, George Syvertsen delivered vital information to the American public. Americans relied on televised news for timely updates on world news during the Vietnam period, as televisions had become commonplace in American households by the 1960s. War reporting influenced public opinion and perception of the war.Walter Cronkite, a fellow commentator and journalist, gave the eulogy at George Syvertsen's funeral. Televised war correspondents like Cronkite and Syvertsen had power over American public opinion at this time, demonstrated by then-President Lyndon Johnson's remark that "If I have lost Walter Cronkite, I have lost Middle America."During his time as a correspondent for CBS's Tokyo division, Syvertsen worked in the active war zone for one out of every three months. On May 31st of 1970, while following a lead that "something [was] up down south," George Syvertsen, his CBS crew, and three accompanying from NBC were ambushed and killed in a grenade explosion. George Syvertsen was only one media victim of the over 60 journalists to die during the war.Syvertsen was killed in an ambush in Cambodia, a region which played a key role in North Vietnamese strategy during the war. North Vietnamese troops relied on sanctuary and supply lines beyond Laotian and Cambodian borders. Under the Geneva agreements US military activity in Laos and Cambodia was restricted, but North Vietnamese forces freely depended on their neighboring territories without formal acknowledgement.

George Syvertsen - (1932-1970). Section F, block 4, lot 8, grave 6.George Syvertsen, CBS correspondent, was known by his fellow reporters for his intrepid nature. A second-generation American son of Norwegian immigrants, Syvertsen spent most of his time abroad covering global events. This veteran war journalist and eight others died in Cambodia on May 31st, 1970. After his body was returned to the US, he was laid to rest on June 16th in a family plot beside his brother, Clifford Syvertsen, and nearby his parents, Olav and Ingrid Syvertsen.TIME's James Bell alleges that during a 1963 encounter, Syvertsen was undaunted by Kremlin security and even charmed Nikita Khrushchev, who came to consider the then-Associated Press reporter one of his personal guests. Syvertsen worked in New York, Poland, and Moscow reporting for the Associated Press until 1966, when he joined CBS.The lives and work of Syvertsen and his crew (Gerry Miller, Remnik Leckhi, Tomharu Ichii, Kojiro Sakai, and Sam Leng), as well as three NBC correspondents also lost (Welles Hangen, Roger Colne, and Yoshiniko Waku) are celebrated by a memorial stone and tree planted in their memory at the village of Wa Po. At his Jacksonville Beach funeral, CBS personnel served as pallbearers and anchorman Walter Cronkite gave the eulogy.

George Syvertsen

Patrick J. Abercrombie was born in Arkansas on Mar 19 1923. He had one daughter, Marcia L. Abercrombie Fritz and three grandchildren: Brenda, Jennifer and Nathan Fritz. At this time, we have been unable to ascertain other information for Patrick Abercrombie. We have also not found a photograph of him.

Patrick J. Abercrombie, b. Mar 19 1923 d. Sep 8 1986 (F-5-2-4) 

Kamosu "Jo" Sakai founded the Yamato Colony during a time when immigration from Japan to the United States was on the rise due to unrest caused by the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 and 1905. Between 1900 and 1908, over 64,000 Japanese immigrants settled in the United States.The Yamato Colony was established with aid from Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway company. Using a subsidiary of his corporation, the Model Land Company, Flagler assisted settlers financially to encourage development on land along his railroad lines.In 1941, shortly after Oishi's departure, the United States confiscated much of the land on which the Yamato Colony was situated and the site was repurposed as Boca Raton Army Air Field, forcing remaining colonists and other residents to relocate.*During World War II, Japanese-Americans were required to register as enemy aliens according to the Alien Registration Program. By 1952, the Immigration and Nationality Act finally allowed Japanese-born Americans to register as citizens. Donald Oishi, who had lived in the United States for over 30 years, became a legal citizen in 1953.* Boca Raton Army Air Field was returned to civilian use in 1958. A majority of the base was repurposed as Boca Raton Airport in 1960, while the remaining land is now part of the Florida Atlantic University campus. Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens memorializes the colony on land donated by original colonist George Morikami.

Donald Ikumo Oishi - (1894-1972). Section F, block 8, lot 8, grave 4.Donald Ikumo Oishi was born in Japan. After his recruitment by Boca Raton's Yamato Colony founder Jo Sakai, he immigrated to Florida in 1915. He worked as the stationmaster of the colony's small depot in addition to running the general store there.He was a prominent member of the Yamato Colony community until the early 1930s. He moved to the Jacksonville area and entered an arranged marriage with Yoshi Takami in 1938. The Takami family grocery store on Pablo Avenue where he worked closed in 1950 and was first replaced by Benny's Snack Bar and later Jacksonville Beach City Hall.

H. Warren Smith Cemetery

Robert Lee Jennings

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Backstory and Context