Frances Hawks deYampert McCondichie

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.

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.