July 2020 Trinity United Methodist Church Volume 4, Issue 3 Historical Society, Tallahassee, FL Since 2017
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A Quarterly Publication of the July 2020 Trinity United Methodist Church Volume 4, Issue 3 Historical Society, Tallahassee, FL Since 2017 “Preserving−Sharing−Caring” Crossroads Sacrifice and Unity: Living Through the Great Depression and World War II By Pamela C. Crosby Inside This Issue: Depression & WWII ·········· 1–11 Rod Dugger, Navy Stained Glass ·················· 12-13 aviation cadette, Bahamas Service Project ·· 14-17 Navy Flight Train- Repasky ························· 18-22 ing Program, 1945. Making History ··················· 23 Submissions & Staff Info ····· 24 In the following ______________ pages, read about Editor’s Note: the experiences of Although Florida residents, Rod and three oth- including members of Trini- er Trinity mem- ty’s congregation, have been bers who lived given stay-at-home orders through major cri- during the current COVID-19 ses in our nation’s epidemic, Historical Society members have been hard at history. work while practicing social distancing and primarily us- ing digital tools and re- sources. We remain commit- ted to preserving and sharing hile most individuals in the challenges brought on by na- historical information and w Tallahassee, FL, were shel- tional crises. This Zoom gathering offer our prayers to all those tering at home on the evening of was organized by Gloria Colvin, a who suffer loss. April 22, 2020 (during the COVID- leader of Lay Academy. _____________ 19 pandemic), a group of Trinity Lay Academy is an educational Contact Info: members attended a class on how program that offers adult classes Pam Crosby, Editor, at persons in the past had coped with [email protected] relating to a wide gamut of topics. (cont. on p. 2) Wayne Wiatt, Senior Pastor; Neal Avirett, Associate Pastor; Nicholas Quinton, Director of Discipleship and Adult Ministries (cont. from p. 1) Four presenters described ways that their families Depression, many men traveled on trains to towns and communities came together to unite their ef- and cities throughout the country looking for forts in response to the Great Depression and work. Often the men were hungry, having trekked World War II. The following is a summary of their far without any money to buy food. Because Ru- experiences as expressed that evening. You can bie’s house was on the corner of Gaines and Mon- listen to a recording of that section here: roe Streets, just north of the railroad overpass https://www.tumct.org/lay-academy-stories-of-the- crossing South Monroe Street, it was a strategic great-depression-and-world-war-ii/ place for the men to visit after they hopped off the train before it arrived at the Tallahassee station. The Great Depression There, they could find a sandwich or other food Rubie Plant Butterworth that Rubie’s mom could offer them. hen the Great Depression struck the US in W the 1930s, Rubie Plant was a child living in Albany, GA, with her parents and sister. Business- es were closing around the nation, including the company where her father worked. With no job and a family to support, Rubie’s dad moved the household to Tallahassee, where her mother’s family (the Byrd family) could offer a “safety-net,” including a cottage home that her grandmother owned (likely rent-free) and a job for her father at her uncle’s grocery store. Although her parents had little money, they found ways to get by. For example, they enjoyed meals from their vegetable garden. Rubie especial- ly remembers Mother made candy and sold it at the book store at FSCW. Every day she made a batch of chocolate and divinity fudge and got it out to the bookstore to be sold and that’s how we lived. After Rubie’s grandmother died in 1934, the family moved from the little cottage into her grandmother’s house, where also her uncle and an aunt and her husband lived. Laurie Plant (Rainer) four years old, left, and Rubie Plant Being an elementary school student and very (Butterworth), seven years old, right, with their grand- mother, Rubie Bernard Byrd (Mrs. T. B.), in front of their young, Rubie was not very aware of the party poli- grandmother’s house on South Monroe Street tics that occupied the minds of many adults. But (Tallahassee) in summer 1932. she does remember the “alphabet agencies,” such as the New Deal’s WPA (Works Progress Admin- Looking back at her childhood, she recalls that istration) and CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps), while life was not ideal, her family did very well from which people benefitted during the national through it all when one considers the circumstanc- crisis. es that confronted them at first. It is true that her dad was only able to earn a meagre salary at the She also remembers the benevolent acts that grocery store and that they had very little cash. In stemmed from a nation of people who found ways addition, five adults and two children shared their to assist others in need. For example, during the house, which made it a bit uncomfortable at times. 2 Published by Trinity United Methodist Church Historical Society, Tallahassee, Florida, July 2020 [04.03.01] Yet they enjoyed being close to their extended Nobody had anything and could not get anything, family, something Rubie has always valued. and people kept coming to our house to talk to Dad- dy about opening up the bank so they could get Although taking vacations was not possible, their money out, and he could not do anything some family members invited them to visit at about it because our money was all in there, too. their vacation get-aways at St. Teresa, FL. They With the bank closing, his father looked for oth- did not own a car or bicycles in the early years as er possible opportunities and was soon named some of their friends did, but there were family Fort Meade’s city manager. Among his job re- members who could offer them transportation sponsibilities was overseeing the CCC and WPA when they needed it. Rubie recalls programs along with the Public Works Admin- We had food; we had a nice house to live in. We had istration (PWA), but he was soon to lose this posi- family support all around us, and as time went on, tion also. Daddy was able to have another job. That made it easier for us, and by the time I was in high school, Fortunately, a friend of his dad had been hired we could move into a house of our own. in St. Petersburg, and his father learned of a bookkeeping position at a savings and loan busi- She adds, “I never talked about my experience ness. Now with his father’ new job, the family [with my parents]. I wish I had because I would moved to St. Pete, which Rod describes as “a real like to know how they felt,” but she recalls that it change for us.” was “not a deprived life at all even though money was very scarce.” The lesson she learned was that “in thinking back on how it influenced me, we learned we did not need things to be happy.” Rod Dugger od Dugger is another Georgia native whose R family moved to Florida for a better life, but in a strikingly different economic climate: Florida was experiencing a financial boom in the 1920s, which would lead Rod’s father, grandfather, and the rest of his family to eventually move from Ma- con to Fort Meade, FL, south of Bartow. There, Rod’s grandfather built his house on the crest of land once occupied by a fort built by Lt. George Gordon Meade (later the famous Civil War general), which had served as a military headquarters in the area during the Seminole War of 1849-1858. Moving to Florida first, Rod’s grandfather then set out to convince Rod’s dad to Rod Dugger, a high school student, around 1938, bring his family to Fort Meade so that they could Peirce, FL. also benefit from Florida’s boom economy. However,3 the economic bust in Florida grew Although Rod’s dad found work at a bank in the much worse right after the Duggers moved there. area, it was not long after his employment that he As Rod describes it, lost his job: the Depression hit Florida with disas- The federal government did not have any money to trous results, causing banks to close, including hand down; the state didn’t have any money. The Rod’s dad’s bank. The result of a closed bank county did not have any, [and] St Petersburg did meant that all the money was locked up within the not have any. bank. Rod describes it as a fearful time: (cont. on p. 4) Published by Trinity United Methodist Church Historical Society, Tallahassee, Florida, July 2018 [02.03.01] 3 Published by Trinity United Methodist Church Historical Society, Tallahassee, Florida, July 2020 [04.03.01] ( cont. from p. 3) Because there was no money from the top of the family, appealed to the church community to help economic ladder to the bottom, schools were fi- out. Answering the urgent call for assistance, a nancially hit hard to the point that local public couple in the church generously took Rod in. It schools could not operate. To fund the schools, was a bittersweet story because the couple had re- students were charged tuition. Without money to cently lost their own son—he had died from lock- pay for tuition, Rod could not attend school that jaw complications after he had stepped on a nail. year. Rod recalls that when the grieving mother learned about Rod’s situation, she Yet, while persons were undergoing hardship all around him, Rod found that life without school for was really excited about getting me as her son on a a young boy did have its moments of fun: temporary basis.