William R. Boone

William R. Boone was a Veteran of two world wars and a lifelong educator, who served as Orlando High School’s last principal. William R. Boone High School was named in his honor.  

William Rennick Boone was born January 20, 1891, in Atlanta, Illinois.¹ His middle name, Rennick, comes from his paternal grandmother’s surname.² Boone grew up in Wellsville, Kansas where his father, Benjamin Boone worked as a farmer.³ His mother, Etta Jones, died just after giving birth to a daughter, Maurine, when Boone was only twelve years old.⁴ His father later remarried and had another son, named Kenneth, when Boone was in his late twenties.⁵ Boone graduated from Wellsville High School in Kansas in 1910 and then went on to earn a bachelor’s in liberal arts degree from the University of Oregon in 1915.⁶ Not long after graduating he began teaching in Nebraska and married Mabel Hornbeck, a fellow Kansan, on December 23, 1916.⁷ 

On August 27, 1917, just four months after the United States entered World War I, Boone enlisted in the Army.⁸ He was commissioned as a 2^nd Lieutenant and assigned to Company E of the 20^th Infantry, 10^th Division of the Operational Response Command.⁹ Later he was transferred to the Division of Physical Reconstruction where he worked in military hospitals as a recreational director and as an assistant in the physiological division of the Medical Corps.¹⁰ In addition to his work with wounded veterans, he also coached, and played for, his company’s basketball team.¹¹ It was through his coaching that the team won the Army regimental championship in 1918.¹² After the war’s end, he and Mabel moved to Orlando where he began his teaching career with Orange County Public Schools in 1921.¹³  

While Boone never had any children of his own, he and his wife became foster parents to a set of three biological sisters at some point between April 1930 and May 1931; eight-year-old Mary Anne, and six-year-old twins Jeanne and Betty Anne Crow.¹⁴ The girls were fostered through the Rose Keller Branch of the Florida Children’s Home Society, an organization that provided social services and cared for children who were orphaned or abandoned.¹⁵ It was a practice at this time for families, especially for those on farms, to foster children with an expectation of reaping the benefits of their labor, and these children were sometimes even sent west on “orphan trains.”¹⁶ However, it does not seem to be the case for the three children fostered by the Boones, who were active in the community with their new family.¹⁷ 

Boone primarily taught biology and science during his career and was a popular and successful basketball coach.¹⁸ In 1932, he became the principal of Orlando High School (OHS), on Robinson Street in Orlando (Howard Middle School today).¹⁹ In 1937, he furthered his education and attended graduate school at Stetson University, where he earned a master’s in arts degree while continuing as principal at OHS.²⁰ Two of his most notable students were actor, Buddy Ebsen (class of 1926) and astronaut, John Young (class of 1948).²¹ When the United States entered World War II, Boone once again volunteered his service to the country, this time as a 1^st Lieutenant and later as Captain, in the Florida Defense Force, 4^th Battalion, Company D from 1941 through 1944.²² During his tenure with the Florida Defense Force, he developed a plan to start pre-induction military training in high schools.²³ 

Orlando’s growth in the middle of the twentieth century meant that more schools were needed to educate the local student population and in 1952, OHS was to be replaced with two new schools, North Orlando High School, on Edgewater Drive and South Orlando High School, at the corner of Kaley Avenue and Mills Street.²⁴ Boone was to be the principal of the new South Orlando High School.²⁵ On Tuesday, June 3, 1952, Orlando High School’s final graduating class walked across the stage at the Tangerine Bowl, known today as Camping World Stadium, to receive their diplomas and shake hands with Principal Boone.²⁶ Two days later, the faculty at OHS chipped in and surprised Boone with a new suit which he thanked them for in his last faculty bulletin, written on Thursday evening, June 5, 1952.²⁷ He expressed his “deep and sincere appreciation for the parting gift” from his faculty and wished that he “could have it to wear today, but they said it would not be ready to don until Tuesday.”²⁸ He concluded by wishing everyone a “most pleasant summer” and wishing that “wherever you may be next year, you will be happy! We will be seein’ you all!”²⁹ The next day, he went to work not feeling well, but he had never missed a day of teaching in his thirty-five-year career, and he didn’t want to miss his final day as principal of his beloved Orlando High School. As he stood up from his desk that morning around 9:40 A.M., he decided that he felt badly enough to walk to a nearby drug store for “a bromide.”³⁰ However, when he returned to the school, he suffered a heart attack and was taken to the hospital where he died at 10:22 A.M.³¹  

Boone’s funeral on Monday, June 10^th, was attended by over 2,500 residents, including many students whose lives he influenced during his long career.³² The suit he was given by his faculty was finished early, and he was laid to rest wearing it in Block 10 of Greenwood Cemetery.³³ Soon after his death, tributes to Boone’s life and service began pouring in, as were calls to name the new South Orlando High School, where he was supposed to finish his career, after him.³⁴ On June 13^th, the new high school was officially renamed William R. Boone High School.³⁵ Boone’s legacy lives on today through generations of students who he educated and through the school that stands as a lasting tribute to his dedication to education and his immeasurable kindness. 

1. “U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918,” database with images, Ancestry, entry for William R. Boone, accessed March 29, 2024, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6482/images/005250465_03607 

2. “Missouri, County Marriage, Naturalization, and Court Records, 1800-1991,” database with images, FamilySearch, entry for Joseph Boon and Caty Rhyonock, accessed March 29, 2024, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9WT-CK57 

3. “1900 United States Federal Census,” database with images, Ancestry, entry for Ben L. Boone, accessed March 29, 2024, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7602/images/4120155_00357

4. “The Death of Mrs. Boone,” Wellsville Globe, August 21, 1903, 1.

5. “1900 United States Federal Census,” database with images, Ancestry, entry for Kenneth Boone, accessed March 29, 2024, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6061/images/4300866_00459

6. “Who Teaches Your Child,” Orlando Morning Sentinel, October 25, 1925, 1.;  “Helps Cure Wounded Men,” The Ottawa Herald, July 15, 1919, 6.

7. “Nebraska Marriages, 1855-1995,” database with images, FamilySearch, entry for William R. Boone, accessed March 29, 2024, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2ZP-5WS6 

8. “Soldiers’ Records,” Wellsville Globe, September 17, 1920, 4.

9. “Soldiers’,” Wellsville Globe.

10. “Soldiers’,” Wellsville Globe.; “Who Teaches Your Child,” Orlando Morning Sentinel, October 25, 1925, 1.; “Helps Cure Wounded Men,” The Ottawa Herald, July 15, 1919, 6.; “Your Chance Make Your Choice Now,” Asyouwere, vol. I, no. 19 (June 21, 1919): 5, accessed March 29, 2024, https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-52420710RX18-leaf ,

11. “William R. Boone...” Wellsville Globe, April 5, 1918, 8.

12. “Boone,” Wellsville Globe.

13. “O.H.S. Principal Boone Dies,” Orlando Evening Star, June 6, 1952, 1.

14. “1930 United States Federal Census,” database with images, Ancestry, entry for Betty Crow, accessed March 29, 2024, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6224/images/4531952_00068 ; “Prof. Ebsen Will Present Pupils in Annual Spring Dance Recital,” Orlando Sunday Sentinel and Reporter Star, May 10, 1931, 11.

15. Anderson-Zorn, April, “Double Duty: Processing and Exhibiting the Children's Home Society of Florida Collection as an Archivist and Public Historian" (2007), p. 2, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3063. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/3063 

16. “Wage fostering application,” c. 1935, The Children's Home Society of Florida Collection, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida.; “Train to Nowhere,” Jacksonville Magazine, July 21, 2015, accessed March 30, 2024, https://www.jacksonvillemag.com/2015/07/21/train-nowhere/ 

17. “Application,” University of Central Florida.; “Prof.,” Orlando Sunday Sentinel and Reporter Star.; “Entertaining for Daughters,” Orlando Evening Star, December 1, 1935, 12. 

18. “O.H.S. Principal Boone Dies,” Orlando Evening Star, June 6, 1952, 1.

19. “O.H.S,” Orlando Evening Star.

20. “Degrees Conferred,” John B. Stetson University Bulletin, 1937-1938, 144.

21. “U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-2016,” Orlando High School Yearbook, 1926, database with images, Ancestry, 46, entry for Ludolf Epsen, accessed March 30, 2024, https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/374884129:1265; “U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-2016,” Orlando High School Yearbook, 1947, database with images, Ancestry, 62, entry for John Young, accessed March 30, 2024, https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/374884129:1265 

22. “US, Adjutant General Military Records, 1631-1976 1941-1942,” database with images, Fold3, 9, entry for William R. Boone, accessed March 30, 2024, https://www.fold3.com/image/713042415?rec=643102822&xid=1945 ; “US, Adjutant General Military Records, 1631-1976 1943-1944,” database with images, Fold3, 13, entry for William R. Boone, accessed March 30, 2024, https://www.fold3.com/image/713042482?rec=643107060&xid=1945

23. “Boone’s Pre-Induction Army Training Plan Meets High Favor,” Orlando Morning Sentinel, April 2, 1942, 7.

24. “Four High Schools Planned,” Orlando Evening Star, April 12, 1950, 3. 

25. “Several Weeks Still Required Before High School Plans Known,” Orlando Sunday Sentinel-Star, December 30, 1951, 18.

26. “463 Orlando High School Seniors Graduated in Colorful Exercises,” Orlando Evening Star, June 3, 1952, 9.

27. “Iconic Principal and His Last School Were Linked to Last Day,” Orlando Sentinel, June 23, 2013, 16. 

28. “William R. Boone's Last Faculty Bulletin,” William R. Boone Collection, Orlando Regional History Center.

29. “Bulletin,” Orlando Regional History Center.

30. Bromide, in formulations such as Bromo-Seltzer or Dr. Miles’ Nervine, was often taken as a sedative for nerves and headaches: “Dr. Miles’ Nervine,” Arnold Zwicky’s Blog, December 10, 2010, accessed March 30, 2024, https://arnoldzwicky.org/2010/12/18/dr-miles-nervine/

31. “Orlando High’s Principal Boone Dies with School,” Orlando Morning Sentinel, June 7, 1952, 1.

32. “2,500 Attend Boone Funeral,” Orlando Morning Sentinel, June 10, 1952, 1.

33. William R. Boone, Greenwood Cemetery Records.; “Iconic,” Orlando Sentinel.

34. “Calls Pour In,” Orlando Evening Star, June 6, 1952, 1.

35. “Kipp Named Principal of Boone High School,” Orlando Evening Star, June 13, 1952, 1.