“Orlando: Familiar Places, Familiar Faces” An Oral History Presentation by Allie Myers for Orlando Remembered, September 2025

My dad delivered, well back then, a lot of ladies came to Orlando to have their babies. He delivered babies from people from Saint Cloud, from Osteen, from New Symrna, all around. He delivered several, about three or four generations of children here… Excerpt from an oral history presentation by Allie Myers for the Orlando Remembered organization on September 17, 2025 at the Orlando Public Library.

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So as I said I was born in Greenville, South Carolina in 1950, my name was Allie Elizabeth Jones. My first recollections of childhood was we were living on the Isle of Palm in South Carolina. My dad was a doctor in the Navy there at the Charleston Navy Base and he always wanted to go into OBGYN. He was a family doctor in the Navy. So before he got out of the Navy, he started sending out letters, you know, inquiring at places. And this is a letter he got back that started my Orlando journey. He was accepted at Orange Memorial Hospital for a residency in OBGYN. So when we moved down here I had an older brother and a younger brother, three of us children and my mom and dad. And we moved down here, and the first place we found to stay was a place you’re probably all familiar with: the Carolina Moon Hotel on the Trail. I wanted to stay at the Wigwams down the street, but it cost a little bit more. And my mother being from South Carolina chose the Carolina Moon….

Orange Memorial Apartment

So from there, we briefly got some housing on the grounds of Orange Memorial Hospital behind the hospital. It was like an apartment building. It’s since been torn down. You know how fast the hospital area has grown over the years. All I can remember staying in that place is… all the walls were painted that dark hospital green color.

Delaney Park Apartment

Then we found an apartment to rent over in Delaney Park on Richmond Avenue. It was a two story house. It was pink stucco. It was on Richmond Avenue. I think it is still there…. Now the landlord upstairs was an older gentleman and I don’t think he was keen on all these children running around. And my mother wasn’t so keen on the landlord living upstairs. But it was a place where my father could walk to work. We only had one car at the time.

Al Coith Park

Delaney Park area, I remember my older brother started first grade at the Delaney School there. I was a little too young for that. And every morning like clockwork, there was a judge that would walk to the courthouse. I think his name was Judge Smith. He had his briefcase, his hat on and his suit and he walked there. The other thing I remember about Delaney Park, what is now Al Coith Park, I believe, that it is a very low lying area. In the early morning, fog would settle down in there. Some people actually called it “Booger Bottom” because it was scary. It was just very dark.

Hollenbeck Drive

From there we moved down further south to Hollenbeck Drive. It’s one street off of Orange Avenue which was then Kuhl Avenue. Kuhl Avenue was a two lane brick street and the line down the middle – it wasn’t painted white – it was actually white brick laid into that brick work.

“Familiar Places, Familiar Faces”

Oh, back to Delaney Park for a minute, because this talk is called “Familar Places, Familar Faces“. Every now and then when my husband and I come to Orlando, we find ourselves driving around where we used to live or went to school, places where we used to eat. So every now and then, I run across someone who goes, “Hey, you used to babysit me” or “Hi, I used to go to Boone High School.” It’s kind of still very familar.

The Neighborhood

But anyway we found a house to rent on Hollenbeck Drive. That’s one street in off of Kuhl Avenue and it’s right there near Kaley. And to paint a little picture, Tripper Cleaners was on the corner there. Across the street from us on a lake in a red brick house lived Kathryn Woodwin. I don’t know if anybody recognizes that name. But playmates on Holllenbeck were the Guest family. They lived down the street and they had about five or six children. We played on that street up and down on our bikes until the streetlights came on and then we had to go home. The streetlight down there was like a tin plate with one lightbulb hanging down.

The Firehouse

And the Guest children, their dad was a firefighter and he was stationed at that firehouse that’s right there at Kaley and Orange with the red door. I have really nice memories of going there because Mrs. Guest would make dinners and would take them to the firefighters and we would sit down and have dinner with the firefighters in the building. And, yes, one time the bell did go off and they all had to get on the truck. And they did actually have a pole in there where the guys came sliding down, a pole like you see in a movie. So that was a lot of fun.

Richmond Avenue

As far as playmates I’m going back to Richmond Avenue. Across the street from us on Richmond there was Dorothy and Bill Conomos and he was an executive at The Sentinel. They had a daughter named Mia that would come over to play, but Mia was a little older than us so we didn’t see her much. Behind me, on the street behind me lived Arlene LaBelle of the LaBelle Fur family and she was my age, so that was my playmate while we lived on Richmond...

The Mailman

One time the mailman, who was named Mr. Holiday, he gave us a ride in the mail truck. He told us kids to please be quiet because he wasn’t allowed to do that. We were in the back of the mail truck and rode up and down as he made his deliveries. A lot of fond memories on Hollenbeck. A little bit of bittersweet memories of the fire station because that’s where a lot of Pulse nightclub victims ended up over there. So when I look at that fire station, I remember the fun we had as a kid playing there and I also remember the sad parts.

Fitness Tests at Lake Eola

When I was on Hollenbeck, this is when I was starting to go to school. And I attended St. Luke’s Cathedral School which was on Central Avenue just right down the block where those two tall office buildings are. And during the Kennedy era, we had to all take fitness tests and we had to run a mile under a certain amount of time. So we ran around Lake Eola. And Lake Eola once around is 9/10 of a mile. We had to run around plus a little bit more and I just made it under time. I wasn’t very athletic, some of my friends were and they got there first and they were cheering me on. And I didn’t have to take it again so I was very happy.

Saint Luke’s Cathedral School

Cathedral School was a cream colored stucco building with oranges and ivy growing all over it. Well, the song is, beneath the vine covered portals you meet the best friends you know that’s why we’re all at the cathedral where the palms and flowers grow. So I was there until about ninth grade.

New Home on Pershing Avenue

And then we finally built a home on Pershing Avenue… By then I had a little baby sister. She was born in ’57. She was the only one of us four children that was born in Orlando and she was born at Orange Memorial Hospital. There was an orange grove on Pershing at the time and there was a developer named, Ralph Preep, I believe, who was building homes along there. And we were one of the first homes, so there were orange trees everywhere. We could climb trees, pick tangerines, oranges so it was really fun. The house is still there on Pershing Avenue….

Martin Marietta Engineers

There was a street behind Pershing where they were building a new subdivision. A lot of people worked for Martin Marietta back then, a lot of engineers. I had that back street sewn up for baby sitting so great. I had a nice income coming: Fifty cents an hour. Because I was getting older, I got babysitting a lot.

Dream House on Summerlin Avenue

Let’s see, okay, in the early sixties, my mom finally got her dream house built and it was on Summerlin Avenue right across the street from the Navy Sound Lab over there. It’s right there where you go to the curves. It’s a two story brick. It’s still there. This is where I went to Boone High School and finished up at Boone. Yes, it’s right there by Gatlin.

Guard at the Navy Lab

Interesting story, the guard at the Navy Lab, we always felt very safe because he was across the street all night and he watched for anything, you know, for anybody who came through the yard or anything. So, it wasn’t too disturbing. There weren’t that many workers that worked there. And they all pulled in early in the morning and by 4:30 they were all out of the parking lot and gone.

United States Naval Research Laboratory

That place is built like a fortress. The walls are really thick. I know there’s been some discussion over the years about tearing it down and building condos or whatever. That discussion has been going on since my parents owned their place in the sixties. The school board owns it now, I think. But to tear that down would be quite an effort because – it’s got signs, it’s a bomb shelter, you know. So that was the Navy Lab.

Lake Gem Mary, Lake Gatlin and Lake Jennie Jewel

Across the street from the Navy Lab was Lake Gem Mary. And then across the other way, those houses on Gatlin, is Lake Gatlin. So it’s kind of a little area between three lakes. Lake Jennie Jewel had a canal across it and it went on along Orange Avenue there behind some houses and all. So you could go through the canal from one part of the lake to another. I used to get out there with my canoe and go through the canal. You had to be careful because it was a bit overgrown and sometimes water mocassions were hanging by those branches.

Swimming Across Lake Jennie Jewel

But I actually swam across Jennie Jewell back in the day. I wouldn’t swim in the lakes today. There’s twice as many, well, maybe ten times as many alligators out there because they’re a protected species. I just don’t think I’d get in the lakes now. But oh, we had fun in the lake a lot. We waterskied. We did all kinds of things there.

Boone High School

So I lived across from the lab there and then in 1968, I graduated from Boone High School. And then I moved off to go to college. And I got married. Life happened and I moved around. And, I ended up in Columbus, Ohio. And I got divorced and then I moved back to Orlando in the late 80s, early 90s. By this time I had a son who also attended Boone High School.

Orlando in the Early ’90s

In the early 90s I worked at FedEx when I came back. And Orlando had changed quite a bit in the ten to twenty year time span when I was gone. I didn’t even recognize the city when I came back. I did get a house in the Conway area and lived there for a while.

Husband John Myers & a New Community

And then, in my fifties I met this gentleman, John Myers, who, he went to school in Casselberry, Florida. So we got married and we moved to Saint Cloud to a retirement community down there. But we still have occasion to come to Orlando and look for familar people. Well, now my daughter-in-law lives here.

John Myers Shares a Story

We didn’t know each other back in the sixties. But I raced. I was at Lyman High School outside Orlando and we came down here and I raced all kinds of people with my car around here. She was racing a baby blue mustang. ’67 Mustang. How many girls back in the day are racing? I never knew her. I never met her until our fifties when we met together. Well, the more we talked the more we realized the places we’ve been together. This little girl back in the sixities her girlfriend was telling me, was going 130 miles an hour and made the curves.

Allie Myers Remembers Drag Racing

You have to understand that the interstate had just been built. There was nobody on it. So I traveled far out, you know. You can’t do that now with all the traffic here. But cars were big in the 50s and 60s. Everybody liked muscle cars. And people used to take each other on at the light. You know, drag race a little bit. So on New Year’s Eve, the police would block off Orange Avenue and synchronize the lights so us kids could actually drag race from one end to the other. But that just could not happen today.

Junior League

So when I moved back I got involved with Junior League. By then I was already in my forties. You pretty much retire out of Junior League at 45. So I was in there about five years and I enjoyed my time with them.

Altrusa Club of Orlando

I got involved with the Altrusa Club of Orlando in Winter Park. They’re still going strong. It’s a group of professional ladies that meet here in the area. And I was their President for a couple years, 2006-2008, I think. And I didn’t do much in Junior League because I was already aging out. But I did, you know, participate.

Girl Scouts

I was a member of Girl Scouts here in Orlando. I went to Camp Tichochee up in the northern area of Florida. I got my picture in the Orlando Sentinel modeling the latest Girl Scout uniform. I didn’t bring that picture. But I remember that. I was the cadette scout. But, you know, brownies and then cadette and senior. They had just come out with new outfits.

First Methodist Church

I was a member of First Methodist Church even though I attended Saint Luke’s. And when we went to Methodist Youth Fellowship, we’d all get together and after we met we’d go to Ronnie’s and get the Extravaganza ice cream and everybody would dive in. That was a lot of fun.

Restaurants

Restaurants I remember. Of course, the Steak ‘n Shake, everybody went to the Steak n’ Shake drive-thru. Beefy King which is still there. And, of course, Ronnie’s… I could go on forever about Orlando stories. [How about Gary’s Duck Inn?] Oh, yes, whenever we had special guests come to town, we’d take them to Gary’s Duck Inn. And I used to love to go there over on the Trail.

Grocery Stores

My mother shopped at that Big Apple store over there on the Trail. It was a grocery store at the time. The Red’s Market for fruit and vegetables and stuff. There was a Publix there off Mills. It’s now Colonial Photo and Hobby. Yeah, it was a little Publix store. When we moved down to Summerlin, we shopped in the Southside Shopping Center. There was a Publix there where that Ross is now and we’d park there. I used to laugh at all these northern people that come down here in their big heavy cars. Folks, I can’t get in a small car anymore. I have to drive a big car now.

Saturday Hair Appointments

Down the street on Gatlin, that long house with the little gables that sits down in there, that was a hunting lodge way back in the 30’s and 40’s. But when we moved in, Dr. and Mrs. Orr lived there. And Mrs. Orr would take her Rolls Royce out every Saturday and go up to Southside and get her hair done for church. A lot of older ladies would get their hair all done up for church on Sundays. So Saturdays they were all out. I did get my haircut at Southside Shopping Center there at Augie’s Enchanted Mirror. [He used to have a before and after TV show.] And his wife would come in and she had her hair- of course back in the sixties it was big bouffant hair – and she had white, platinum blond bouffant. It was really, really something.

Saint Luke’s Cathedral School and Downtown Orlando

Back to Cathedral School because of its location, there was a Winn Dixie down the street here. And whenever we’d have a school party, they’d give us kids money and say, “Okay, buy chips and Coke.” And they let us go down there and buy stuff and bring it back for our party. When the Sound of Music came to town, we’d all march down to the Beacham and sit there and watch the Sound of Music. We had a lot of freedom at that school. It was really lovely. I really enjoyed it. We were all over downtown.

Religious Services

And, of course, on Maundy Thursday when we had religious services, we’d march to the old cathedral there with flowers. And that was quite a sight to see with the kids that were in the choir – I didn’t make choir – but in their white choir robes with their red cap and their red collars. It was really, it was just a lot of fun. We were all over the place here… We had to go to church every morning or chapel before school and, you know, very religious based. I grew up with all kinds of religion. I was a member of First Methodist forever. But I’ve been to synagogue. I’ve been to Catholic church. I’ve been to, of course, Episcopal… And all these buildings are still standing. When I had my bacculaureate services when I graduated from Boone High School, it was at the Presbyterian Church down here….

New Symrna Beach

In the summer, when I could drive, we hit New Symrna Beach. All us kids would drive to New Symrna Beach. Some of us surfed. Back then the surf boards were mainly made for guys. They were big wide surf boards. I’m short. I can’t straddle a surf board like that. I just never did. I threw the skim board and hopped on it and would ride along the shoreline. But I never was a surfer. But we always either Saturday or Sunday drove to New Symrna Beach and then came back.

A Home in New Symrna

As a matter of fact, we had planned to retire in New Symrna Beach. We owned a little house over there that we had made. It was built in the seventies and we made plans to retire over there. But the house was on a very narrow lot. And if we were to add on, it was two bedroom one bath, it would been a shot gun house all the way across. There was no room to expand this way. We got estimates to remodel the house, but they cost a good bit over in New Symrna. And we found this home down in Saint Cloud, brand new for the same price it would have cost to remodel the place on the beach.

Hurricanes

Also, a hurricane came by once. We had to go over and check and we couldn’t get back on the island for two weeks. So we didn’t know if we still had a house or not. And I said, ” You know, Jack, we’re getting a little old for this. I don’t know if I want to keep going over and checking on a beach house and seeing if it’s still there. If it survived.” I said, “You know, let’s get out of Orlando and out of the traffic.” So we went down there and well now Osceola County is booming like crazy. So that was a mistake. When we first moved there about eight years ago, there were cows all around. Now there’s subdivisions all around us. It’s amazing how fast it’s growing down there… I sat through Hurricane Donna over on Pershing Avenue and I remember that. We didn’t have electricity for about two weeks. You got your grill out and your charcoal and you made the best of it…

T.G. Lee MIlk Delivery

We had milk delivered in the milk jugs. They would come to the door. Yes, there were cows at T.G. Lee. And there were cows where Colonial Plaza Mall is. It’s sad to see these malls go down because Colonial Plaza Mall was across the street and down when they first built the mall. And it was a cow field.

Plaza Rocking Chair Theater

Of course as teenagers we hung out there, the Plaza Rocking Chair Theater. I saw a ton of Elvis movies there. You could go into the movie and you could sit and you could stay all day and watch the same movie over and over. You know, now they kick you out and let the next crowd come in. I came across an old ticket for Beacham Theater, I think it was like .75 cents to get in… My sister loved Beefy King more than me. I would drive her there because she couldn’t drive yet to Beefy King.

Kappy’s Subs

My husband he started out in high school prepping food for Kappy’s Subs up the road there. And when he went to prom, Kappy loaned him his car. I guess he trusted him. I’ve never eaten at Kappy’s because up that road was like a whole ‘nother town. We stayed right in our area you know…

Technical Writer for Westinghouse

When I moved back in the late eighties I had a job out at Westinghouse out there on Alafaya Trail and boy Alafaya Trail is no trail anymore. It’s really, really huge. Yeah, I worked there as a technical writer for quite a few years… I have a Westinghouse watch. After you’ve been there five years, they give you a watch.

Assistant to the Senior Vice President at FedEx

Then I got a better offer at FedEx in Maitland. In that Maitland Tower there FedEx had set up a lot of work. I was an assistant to the senior vice president. Most of my team was in Memphis and I was sitting in a desk by myself in that office building. I was working remotely by that time. And I think a lot of FedEx people have moved out of there since, back to Memphis which is their home office.

FedEx Awards Program

I made many trips to Memphis to give presentations. I was in charge of the awards. When new employees came in, I would train them. And if they followed procedures, they’d get these little wooden pogs and if you saved up so many you could get gifts like coupons to McDonalds and things like that. So I kind of ran an awards program. I was in their tech division, but I wasn’t very technical. I was more public relations and training and that type of thing. And I retired from FedEx. I had a FedEx necklace after ten years. And I got a set of luggage from FedEx when I retired from FedEx…

Christmas Parades

I remember the Christmas Parades with Sherriff David Starr. He always had a white horse riding down there. I’ve actually marched in the Christmas Parade. There was some group of girls that would twirl batons and march. It was with the Parks and Recreation and I marched in the Christmas Parade. Then, the Christmas Parade with the crowds just got to be too much. So my mother rented a hotel room in the San Juan Hotel that looked down on the street and we’d stand there and watched it from above. Can you imagine the Christmas Parade being that crowded? Now Saint Cloud has Christmas parades that are more like old Orlando.

Fireworks at Lake Eola

Fireworks at Lake Eola was not too many people, not very crowded. So things have changed. The population here has really boomed. I remember when they put the fountain in. And the fountain, I have such a funny remembrance. For a lot of people I know, when guests would come to town and you didn’t know what to do with them, you drove them around and showed them the fountain. You sat and watched it change colors. And when it got red it would shoot up really high. Actually, I’ve been married twice and both times I got engaged in Lake Eola Park, that is so funny.

Family Life

I got married the first time in the Methodist Church there and the second time we got married on the beach. We’re both beach lovers – so under the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse over there. I have one son and like I said, he went to Boone High School. He finished at Boone. He now lives in Ohio. He went to Ohio State. My siblings, there were four of us. Both of my brothers have passed away. My older brother was an anthropologist for the State of Indiana. They called him Indiana Jones. And my younger brother was a pharmacist here at Walgreens. And my sister is still alive and she lives in Wyoming. So people have moved on. But I just can’t get over the fact that every time we are in a restaurant, someone will go, “I know you. You went to Boone High School.” And I go, “What, really?” So it’s still, you know, some of the older crowd is still here. And it’s a lot of fun. [Well, your dad was one of one of two doctors who delivered most of Orlando.]

Dr. James R. Jones, Jr.

Well, my dad delivered, well back then, a lot of ladies came to Orlando to have their babies. He delivered babies from people from Saint Cloud, from Osteen, from New Symrna, all around. He delivered about several, about three or four generations of children here. And, I one time got on one of these nostalgic chatrooms on Facebook and people went, “I remember Dr. Jones, he delivered me or he delivered my child.” They had an office right there on Underwood Street or at the corner of Orange and Underwood, I think. Well, it’s gone now, too. The hospital just keeps growing… He started out on Sturtevant Street over there by the emergency room. He went in with Dr. [Frank] Parish and Dr. [Dorothy] Brame.

Dr. Dorothy Brame

Dr. Brame was the only female obstetrician around. She lived across the street on a little lake. That area’s been torn up, there’s nothing constructed there yet. It looks like fences up, like they’re going to build something. Dr. Brain, I just remember her because she was a tall, large framed woman, a lot of people have fond memories of her…

My Mother was a Nurse

My mother was a nurse and she just basically worked at my dad’s office. It was like a family business. When I got older and needed money, I’d go clean the bathrooms and do things and they’d pay me out of the office. My mother, when some nurses were out, she’d fill in. That was over on Lucerne Terrace where he got another office. Well actually, it was an old house that was renovated.

1950s Orlando: Cars and Surf Boards

But, you know, back in the fifties if you want to paint a picture, cars were in, surf boards were in for Orlando. Every kid saved up for a surf board or at least the boys did. I’m a doll collector, so I saved my babysitting money and bought dolls. I still have them….

Saturday Night

You know, my father he had to make rounds after dinner in the evening and go to visit his patients in the hospital. And I’d ride with him and he’d pull up at the Emergency Exit and I’d sit in the car while he went in for a half hour or so and made rounds with his patients. And on Saturday night that was very exciting. The ambulance pulled up, there were stabbings, gunshots even back then. And I wasn’t afraid. And he wasn’t afraid to leave me in the car. Can you imagine leaving a ten year old in a car. [Your dad made house calls.]

House Calls

Oh, yeah, I remember one time he had to make a house call over on Parramore Street. And he pulled up in the driveway of this house and he said, “Sit here. I’ll be right back.” And I thought nothing of it. I sat in the car and, you know, amused myself until he came back out and then we went. And, you know, it’s amazing you can’t do that.

Orange Memorial Hospital

One thing about Orange Memorial, you know, it was a brick building, I don’t know how many stories. But it had a big grassy front lawn. And to get in the building you had to park behind it. Well, there was a shortcut into the building. Because there was a small building off to the side, it was a boiler room and he cut through there to get into the back of the hospital. And I was terrified to walk through that boiler room all those wrapped pipes making noise and steam coming out. I was terrified of that place, but it was a shortcut into the back of the hospital.

Hospital Visitor Rules

One of the Guest children had to have their appendix out and she was my best friend and I wanted to see her in the hospital. Well, children under twelve were not allowed even in the door at that time. And so she was on the third floor right by one of those big old windows and they pulled up the sash and she waved and I stood on the front lawn and waved to her. So it’s just so much different.

Greeting Dad on Holloway Street

But we had moved to Holloway because it was only a couple blocks to the hospital. My mother had the ’57 Chevy station wagon to haul us kids around. But I’d go out and greet him around the corner every evening. I’d go out. “Your dad’s on the way home”. And I’d run out there.

Phones

Phones, we had party lines. Our phone number was 43759, I think. I was one time here at the library and I looked up some old city things, and there we were, the Jones Family 43759. So, yeah.

Doctor Directories

I’ve donated quite a few items to the History Center, all my Girl Scout stuff. My parents never got rid of anything, they were real packrats. When I cleaned out their house, I found tax returns from 1952. I mean they brought this stuff down with them. I had a lot of directories of the doctors at the hospital and all that they left behind.

The Jennie Jewel Lake Society

The Jennie Jewel Lake Society, they had a group. And I packaged it all up the other day and mailed it to the History Center so they could have that.

Maypole Dance

I also gave them a few pictures of the old Cathedral School. Every spring we had a festival, we had a Maypole Dance. The girls would dress up in a pretty dress and they’d put this Maypole up with these ribbons coming down. I was purple. My ribbon was purple. And we had to learn how to go over and under and weave with the Maypole…

Thank you so much for your presentation. (Loud applause from the audience.)

Oral History Presenter:  Allie Myers

Oral History Presentation Recorded by:  Jane Tracy

Date:  September 17, 2025

Place:  Orlando Public Library