William Littledale Wadsworth

William Littledale (Billy) Wadsworth, born 06 May 1914, Hawthorne, Alachua CO, FL, died 26 Sep 1978, Palm Coast, Flagler CO, FL, married 05 Oct 1943, Palatka, Putnam CO, FL, Frances E Faulkner, dau of Frank Ernest Faulkner and Hannah Susie Bouge, born 21 Nov 1915, Gainesville, Alachua CO, FL, died 20 Apr 1999, Painters Hill, Flagler CO, FL. Both buried Pellicer Creek Cemetery, St Johns CO, FL.

In Oct 1933, while a first-year student at the University of Florida, he earned an excellent reputation as a football player on the freshman team. He played guard.

His coach said, "Wadsworth played soccer but never saw a regular football of any description until the varsity encounter with Stetson. Possessed of a fine physical physique, and a capacity to learn rapidly and execute assignment with ability, augmented with a rare sense of humor, Wadsworth has become one of the stand outs on the freshman grid team."

He graduated from the Citadel in Charleston, SC with a bachelor of science degree and joined the U S Army in 1939. In Oct 1943, he was a member of the Coast Artillery Corps, Anti-Aircraft Division.

He was named Flagler County prosecuting attorney in Aug 1949 (effective 1 Sep), soon after he graduated from Stetson Law School. He served as a Representative to the Florida Legislature from 1957 to 1967 and in 1966 was elected a circuit court judge. He took office in 1967 and served continually from that time until his death.

Billy, as most of his Flagler County neighbors called him affectionately called him, was a man of contrasts.

Wadsworth proudly called himself a “cracker,” and was a man of the earth where he grew up, Flagler County, and especially Bunnell where he made his home for many years.

But he was also urbane, known for his polished rhetoric and oratory that brought acclaim wherever he went, whether it was Tallahassee or at a National Judge’s Conference in another part of the county. His wit and intelligence were always manifest, making it appear he had the world at his fingertips.

Some call him rumpled and a “product of cracker county” and he was. But when he served his first term as a State Legislator, Tick Tuttle, then Capitol Press Bureau Chief, wrote in one of his columns: “Down in Flagler County, which is mostly palm trees, turpentine stills and small farms, Wadsworth is a big name…..William L. Wadsworth is a lawyer and State Representative……but no one would accuse Bill Wadsworth of looking ‘rich.’ He’s something of a sartorial wonder. He always looked rumpled, rather like an unmade bed looking for a sleeper. But Wadsworth’s mind is far sharper than his attire. And his humor contains little barbs or nuggets of wisdom. He’s the closest thing the Legislature has to Will Rogers.”

That look changed in recent years after his family begged him to give up his black suits which had long been his trademark. He started wearing a plaid suit and admitted it made him feel younger.

Pleased as he was, the Judge loped - - he never walked – through the Courthouse as if nothing had changed, smiling as he went.

That smile became one of Judge Wadsworth’s trademarks, but only after he lost his first case in Volusia County just after he was graduated from Stetson’s Law School.

As a new member of the bar, he presented his case in a serious mien, talking studiously in tones he thought befitted him as an attorney. That tactic caused him to completely lose the jury and the case. Deflated, the young Wadsworth picked up his papers and was heading back to Bunnell when former Judge - - later Assistant Secretary of the Navy – Francis Whitehair called him to the bench.

Whitehair said: “Do you know why you lost that case, Billy?” Getting a negative answer, the Judge gave Wadsworth some advice he never forgot to use: “Smile. No matter what’s happening, keep smiling and no one will ever know what you are thinking.”

Judge Billy spent a lot of time in the woods of Flagler County. He was an indefinable “digger.” He searched out the location of old kitchen mittens and attacked them with his trusty shovel, searching for bottles and other relics of days gone by when the area was filled with sugar mills, plantations and settlements.

Family man, judicial and prudent, devoted to his beloved Florida and Flagler County, Judge Wadsworth left his mark on the land and its people. He would have been on the bench for 12 years had he lived until the first of the year. His judgements will stand as a symbol of his judicial craft, his family is an honorable mark of love and devoted home life, but in one of the courtrooms of Volusia County there is a unique mark.

At the close of one of Judge Wadsworth’s trials, the defendant was found guilty. He became so enraged when he stood for sentencing that he gathered up all the papers on the desk and flung them into the air, all the way to the ceiling above. There the seemingly impossible happened: the papers lodged firmly in the glass chandelier. Judge Wadsworth just smiled.

Those papers are probably still stuck in the chandelier, a mark to remind courtroom followers that Judge Wadsworth was here.

Early in the days of the Palm Coast development, ICDC engineers found the remains of the floor of an immense sugar mill, said to be the largest on the Florida East Coast, commonly called the St. Joe sugar mill and formerly owned General Joseph Hernandez of St. Augustine.

ICDC asked some of the then County Commissioners to visit the site to tell them if it had any lasting historical significance. Reportedly, the commissioners said it was a pile of useless rocks and so advised the ICDC planners.

As a result, fill dirt dredged from finger canals was put over the plantation ruins, To all intents and purposes, St. Joe sugar mill was obliterated.

But the ICDC engineers hadn't reckoned on the enterprise of an historical minded Circuit Judge, Billy Wadsworth. In deciding to live at Palm Coast, Judge Wadsworth displayed his usual wisdom by picking what he believed to be the old site of the St. Joe Sugar Mill.

The house he bought had a little canal frontage, but the lot next door was vacant so he bought it , too. Then he started digging for a patio floor and found one, already made of coquina boulders. It was the floor of the old sugar mill he had uncovered.

It reportedly gave Judge Wadsworth a great deal of satisfaction in his last days to point out to visitors how he outwitted ICDC by uncovering the remnant of the past the corporation had tried to hide forever.

On 05 Dec 1980, about 100 persons turned out for the dedication of William Littledale (Billy) Wadsworth Park. The park is located on State Road 100 at Connecticut Ave in Flagler Beach (just West of the bridge) on land donated by ITT Community Development Corp.

While a member of the Florida Legislature, he had established a legislative which set aside $6,000 per year for recreational purposes in Flagler CO.

The main speaker at the dedication of the park was State Education Commissioner Ralph Turlington, who served with Wadsworth in the Legislature.

Frances Faulkner Wadsworth began her teaching career at the age of 19 in Newberry after receiving a two-year teaching certificate from Stetson.

She taught elementary school in Daytona Beach for many years, too, but spent most of her career at Bunnell High School coming here in 1940. In 1943, she received her degree from Stetson.

Mrs Wadsworth was active in several local service organizations. In 1943 she served as the first vice-president of American Legion Auxiliary Unit 115. In addition to serving in the auxiliary, she was a member of the St Marks Lutheran Church, First Baptist Church of Bunnell, Phi Delta Kappa Honor Society, Delta Kappa Gamma, and educator's fraternity, Flagler County Retired Educators Association, the Idlewood Club, a charter member of the Flagler County Historical Society, the Flagler County Friends of the Library and a past president of the Flagler Chapter of the American Cancer Society.

She was listed in the "Who's Who in American Educators" in 1989. Issue;

1. Susan Lotta Wadsworth, born 16 Jun 1944, Halifax Hospital, Daytona Beach, Volusia CO, FL, married 29 Jul 1969, First Baptist Church, Bunnell, Flagler CO, FL, James Louis Roberts, son of James M Roberts.

She was a 1962 graduate of Bunnell High School and attended Florida State University where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree. She garnered an “A” in undergraduate school for her “Vignettes of Papa,” a series of short tidbits about her father’s preference for hot coffee, hatred of musty wash cloths and girls who “took too much time primping in the bathroom.”

She followed in her father’s footsteps by becoming a lawyer. On 07 Jun 1969, she was among 30 students to receive their Juris Doctor degree at Florida State University, the first woman graduate to receive such an honor. She was a member of Phi Delta legal fraternity.

In Aug 1969 she was a research clerk in the office of Judge Woodie Lies, Second District Court of Appeals, Lakeland, FL.

In Jan 1977, she was sworn in as a Polk CO, FL judge in an investiture ceremony held in Bartow. At that time, she was the first woman Judge in Polk County and all of Florida. Issue;

(1) Carson James Roberts, born 24 Mar 1973, Lakeland, Polk CO, FL . Issue'

A. Kyle James Brawley, born 17 Mar 2005

B. Kaithlyn Lilly Brawley, born 07 Dec 2006

Susan Lotta Wadsworth married 2nd, 09 Jun 1979, Polk CO, FL, Dan Phillip Brawley, born 24 Dec 1945, died 16 Dec 2014. Dan adopted Carson James Roberts in 1992 at Carson's request..

2. Penelope Gail Wadsworth, born 02 Feb 1946, Daytona Beach, Volusia CO, FL, married 15 Jun 1968, Bunnell, Flagler CO, FL, Kenton Albert Shephard (Div).

She was a graduate of Bunnell High School and entered Florida State University in Sep 1963..

At FSU she was a member of Zeta Tau Alpha, University Promotion Board, Sophomore Council, and Junior Council. She was secretary of the freshman flunkies and in Feb 1968, was employed by Rose Printing Company in Tallahassee.

Gail then entered Stetson University, DeLand, FL and graduated from that institution in the summer of 1972.

Gail was elected to a four year term as Flagler County Clerk of the Courts in November 2000. She was reelected in 2004 and 2008.

She is a Florida State Supreme Court certified Clerk of the Circuit Court and has represented the Clerks of Florida as the State Coordinator of the National Association of Court Clerks, Recorders & Elected Officials (NACRC). Issue;

(1) Frances Christine Shephard, born 18 Nov 1970, Halifax Hospital, Daytona Beach, Volusia CO, FL, married Davis G Simmons, Jr.

(2) William Webster (Webb) Shephard, born 30 Dec 1974, Halifax Hospital, Daytona Beach, Volusia CO, FL

(3) Whitney Gail Shephard, born 27 Nov 1976, Halifax Hospital, Daytona Beach, Volusia CO, FL, married Joshua Yates

3. Wilhelmina Littledale (Prunie/Mena) Wadsworth, born 08 Jan 1957, Halifax Hospital, Daytona Beach, Volusia CO, FL, married 18 Nov 1989, Wadsworth Park, Flagler CO, FL, Keith Michael Dalton (Div).

Prunie Wadsworth married 2nd, 15 Oct 2005, Westside Baptist Church, Flagler CO, FL, Jay Clark Rodgers, son of Curtis Hoover Rodgers and Naomi June Hosford, born 08 Apr 1957, Flagler Hospital, St Augustine, St Johns CO, FL.

Prunie graduated from Salem Academy, Winston-Salem NC on 1 Jun 1975 and received a BA in History from Stetson University on 04 Aug 1978.

Jay was married 1st on 06 Jun 1981 to Beth Ann Schmucker. They had one daughter, Carrie Lynn Rodgers.

Jay was married 2nd on 16 Mar 1990 to Patricia Ann Germack, dau of Stanley Joseph Germach and Grete Rosemueller, born 12 Apr 1958, Berlin Germany, died 06 Aug 1993, Bunnell, Flagler CO, FL, buried Espanola Cemetery, Espanola, Flagler CO, FL. They had two sons, James Craig and Jason Lee Rodgers.

SOURCES:

1920 United States Federal Census, Precinct 36, Dist 81, Hillsborough CO, FL; Florida Marriage Collection, 1927-2001; Florida Death Index; Social Security Death Index;

The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Daytona Beach, FL, 22 Apr 1999; The Flagler Tribune, Bunnell, FL, 14 Oct 1943, 22 Jun 1944, 10 Jan 1957, 11 Apr 1957, 16 May 1969, 20 Aug 1970, 09 Jan 1975, 27 Jan 1977, 28 Sep 1978, 11 Dec 1980; Palatka Daily News, Palatka, FL, 26 Sep 1978; additional Wadsworth Family Information provided by Susan Wadsworth Brawley, Gail Wadsworth and Prunie Wadsworth Rodgers and Brawley family information from Carson Brawley via email 2/17/2012.

Please send questions, corrections or additions to Sisco Deen, P.O. Box 637, Flagler Beach, FL 32136 or email him at Sisco_Deen@hotmail.com