Biography of Jerry Wilkinson
By Jerry Wilkinson
September 10, 2005
Jerry
Sparkman Wilkinson
is a fourth generation Floridian born and, raised on a farm in Winston,
which
is just west of Lakeland,
Florida. His
maternal
great-great-grandfather, Bethel Hankins moved to Madison,
Florida bringing his slaves
as part of the
family from South Carolina
in 1852. His paternal family, Joseph Andrew Wilkinson, moved to
Hypoluxo Florida
also in the
middle 1800's. His parents of the Hankins and Wilkinsons were joined in
Fort Pierce,
Florida.
He
attended Webster Avenue Grammar
School and Lakeland High
School.
His father died in 1944, the family farm was sold and his mother moved
to Tampa, Florida
to live with her sisters. Jerry quit high school and attended a
technical school for welding. After working as a welder in the St.
Johns
Shipyard in Jacksonville, Florida,
he purchased and operated a portable roller skating rink, moving it to
many
towns throughout Florida.
Some of these towns were Gainesville, Lake City,
Fort Meade,
Mulberry, Winter Haven, Dade City,
Wildwood, Haines City and Inverness.
He
moved to Key West
after the second
hurricane of 1947, but joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in April, 1948.
He served
in the Air Force as a Drill Instructor, Electronics Instructor,
Technical Writer and Superintendent of Ground Electronics for 24 years.
Upon
retirement,
he operated several automatic full-service car washes in the Miami, Florida
area until the
primary property was
taken for the construction of the South Miami
metro rail station. He met and married Mary Lou Pierce of Coral Gables, Florida
while in Miami.
After
the eminent domain of the car washes in 1978, they traveled teaching
windsurfing in Key
Largo in the winters, guided river rafting tours on the upper Colorado
River in
the summers and attended Rancho
Santiago College
in Santa Ana, California for the fall semesters of
the following 10 years.
In
1988, they purchased
a 1958 ocean-side fixer‑upper house next to Harry Harris Park in
Tavernier, Florida
which he and his
wife, Mary Lou, are restoring. Living in the outskirts of the old Key Largo 1880 community of Planter, he became
involved
is trying to preserve a portion of the community from demolition and
new
construction. During this time, he collected and summarized Keys
history for
various newspapers and magazines in the Florida
Keys
and served as president of the Historical Preservation Society of the
Upper
Keys (HPSUK) to present.
Finding
little Upper
Keys historical documentation in the Upper Keys, he began to travel
throughout
the southeastern U.S.
each summer.
He copied printed material and photographs on any and all Upper Keys
related
material. When not traveling and using the bibliographies of copied
materials, material was purchased from the National
Archives, Library of Congress and south Florida
libraries.
Although
all facets of
Upper Keys history were of interest, the history of Indian Key, the Key West
extension, Overseas
Highway,
censuses, photographs and hurricanes were of special interest. Through
his
research of the Florida East Coast Railway System, he made the
acquaintance of
William Krome, son of the FECRwy construction engineer, who resided in Homestead, Florida.
Days were spent interviewing Mr. Krome who generously gave of his time.
Next,
he met John (Jack) Krome of Norfolk, Virginia while vacationing with
his
brother William. An agreement vas made with the Krome families to
compile,
copy, bind and disseminate to agencies interested in providing the
public with
access to the information.
Many
interviews of the
1935 Hurricane survivors and collecting of images were made and he
assisted in four documentaries for television. Other TV documentaries
were, the Overseas Highway,
wreck of the slave ship Guerrero and
the William Matheson house on Lignum Vitae Key. He
wrote weekly and special newspaper articles for
local newspapers.
Four of the newspaper series were A Bit of Keys History, Mile Markers,
Key
Largo Times and Celebrating Our Past.
In
the interest to
preserve and disseminate his collected information in 1997 he undertook
the
publication of a 16-page Upper Keys history quarterly (History
Talk
of the Upper Florida Keys)
under the auspices of the HPSUK.
In
1999 he studied the
computer language of html and produced the present web site:
www.keyshistory.org or .com.
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