Page 16 - Clay County: Communities, Families, & Friends 2024

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Mrs. Alice Johnson Williams was born October 22, 1923 in
Green Cove Springs. She is the daughter of William (Green
Cove Springs, FL) and Alice Johnson (Aiken, SC) who lived
to be 90 years of age, and is a granddaughter to her paternal
grandmother, Mrs. Margaret Johnson, who married William
“Willie” Johnson. Her family, who owned land in the
community sold land to the Atlantic Railway. They also owned
property on the coast of St. Johns River.
Her siblings included three brothers and two sisters, namely
Willie, who served in the U.S. Navy; Roosevelt, who joined
the U.S. Army; Rudette, who was a musician, locally renown
for building boat docks; and staunch Dunbar High School
advocate; Marie who lived until 99 years old and whose
employment included the Afro-American Life Insurance
Company that was founded by Florida’s first Black millionaire
Abraham Lincoln Lewis of Jacksonville; and Theda, an
educator and owner of a private kindergarten school in Green
Cove Springs.
She attended “Dunbar School” her entire school years when it
was located at Walburg Street and Cypress, and graduated in
1942 as an athlete on the Dunbar Girls Basketball team.
Mrs. Williams was married to one husband, Isaiah Williams,
and traveled internationally with him during his military
career living in England and Germany along the way, but
returning to her beloved Green Cove Springs, where she has
impacted the lives of generations of youth at Mt. Zion AME
Church-Green Cove Springs. She volunteered as a director of
its Youth Department coordinating several church-sponsored
programs and activities. She has no children but dotes upon
her many family families including nieces and nephews while
at a local assisted-living center. Surpassing 100 years of age,
she was featured in the Clay Today newspaper, and is the eldest
living member of Mt. Zion AME Church.
Hogans-Robinson-Holte
The late Thomas Hogans, Jr., of Green Cove Springs, was a
popular, well-respected and winning basketball coach for Paul
Laurence Dunbar High School and, during desegregation for
a couple of seasons, at Clay High School as its first African
American head coach. He received his undergraduate and
graduate degrees at Florida A&M University, and was a U.S.
Veteran. “Coach” Hogans later retired from the Clay County
School System and was devoted to his family, community, and
church. He could also sing. His wife was the late Jettie McCall
Hogans; and their children were Velda, Sonya, Norma Hogans
Fayson, and Anthony (Iris); a sister, Patricia Edwards; half
siblings Patti Holte Edwards who is famously known as Patti
Labelle, Jacqueline, Barbara, and Vivian; and a step-brother,
Ulysses Hogans. He has several grandchildren, in-laws, and one
godson, Curtis Francis. Coach Hogans died on Friday, August
24, 2007, and left a legacy of goodwill exemplified through the
naming of the Thomas Hogans Memorial Gymnasium as a
tribute to his accomplishments. Prior to his death in 2001, he
was inducted into the Florida A&M
University Sports Hall of Fame for his basketball
accomplishments.
Hogans and Patti LaBelle have the same birth mother, Bertha
Lee Robinson Hogans Holte, who died at age 61 in 1978, in
Philadelphia. She first married Thomas Griffin Hogans, Sr. in
1930 in Clay County. Life continued and she married Henry
Holte in 1941 in Dade County, and died in 1989. The blended
Hogans-Holte family eventually moved to Philadelphia, where
Patti was born. Hogans, Jr. returned to his Green Cove Springs
birthplace. Of note is that both men, Hogans, Sr. and Holt,
worked for the Florida East Coast Railway. [NOTE: Some
sources spell Holte as Holt, and Hogans as Hogan.]
The late Mrs. Caroline Francis
joined by her son, Ken Francis, in
celebration of a past Mother’s Day.
The Francis name is known
widely, especially among the
African American community
of Green Cove Springs. Less
known about them is their
connection to the historical
Lycurgus and Forrester
families, in addition to other
well-known community members by blood and marriage. One
such person is Carolyn Claire Copeland Francis born in 1924
in Green Cove Springs to Viola Lycurgus Robinson and Willie
C. Copeland. Quiet, astute, and courageous, Carolyn was a
lifelong member of historic Mount Zion A.M.E. Church in
Green Cove Springs, where she filled many roles. She graduated
from the Old Dunbar School class of 1942 located on the site
of what is now the Augusta Savage Friendship Park or Tot Lot.
Education was important, and so she matriculated to Bethune-
Cookman College, now Bethune-Cookman University. She
worked at Westinghouse Electric in Bridgeport, Connecticut
to support the war effort of World War II. She also worked for
the Clay County Health Department for over 33 years where
she started as a janitor and retired as dental assistant making
her the first African American to hold that position. In her 93
years of life, she was gifted to see and touch her children’s,
grandchildren, and great grandchildren’s lives, and many
community members.
Her marriage to Earl Lester Francis lasted 65 years. He was
known as the original bus driver during segregation for Black
children from Orange Park, Maxville, Penney Farms, and
Middleburg, and bringing them to Green Cove Springs. He also
worked in procurement in the school system. Their marriage
yielded three sons, Kenneth Earle, Wayne Dwight, and the late
Eugene Lester. Her husband’s youngest sister was Vera Francis
Hall for whom the park, once a blighted city dump on State
Road 16, is named. Ken credits his mother and the lessons
learned at Dunbar High School for his success that spanned
administrative work at the City of Green Cove Springs for the
Neighborhood Facilities Center.
Lycurgus-Robinson-Copeland-Francis