T
HE FLAGLER TRIBUNE
Bunnell, Florida
Thursday, March 12, 1936

 

Death came Monday to Ex-Governor Sidney J. Catts, colorful figure of Florida politics and especially so back in the days of the world war.

Catts was well known to a number of the older residents of this county, having owned for many years a large tract of farm land in the Bimini section. He acquired the land when he was campaigning for governor back in 1916 against W. V. Knott, present state treasurer.

"Old one-eyed Catts," as the former governor, minister, school teacher merchant and planter often called himse1f - - died at his home in DeFuniak Springs in his seventy-third year following a few days illness which climaxed several years of failing health and near blindness.

Catts came to Florida from Alabama, his native state, after losing a race for congress to J. Tom Heflin, later United States senator from that state. His primary and general election campaigns for the Florida governorship in 1916 are recorded as unique in the state's political history.