Print ArticleWith election day finally arriving, here's a list of Florida's governors that were either born or lived in Jacksonville, in chronological order.
9. Cecil Farris Bryant
In Office: 1961-1965
The 34th Governor of Florida, Bryant was originally from Marion County and also served on the United States National Security Council and in the Office of Emergency Planning during the President Lyndon B. Johnson administration. A segregationist, Bryant worked to get interstate highways built in Florida. He was also a major proponent of the Cross Florida Barge Canal. After his term and losing the 1970 race for the U.S. Senate to Lawton Chiles of Lakeland, Bryant moved to Jacksonville where he practiced law and lived until his death in 2002.
10. William Haydon Burns
Image of the State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/128931
In Office: 1965-1967
Burns, mayor of Jacksonville from 1949-1965, was the 35th Governor of Florida. As mayor of Jacksonville, Burns demolished downtown's wharves, then known as skid row, and replaced them with a new courthouse, City Hall, Sears Roebuck store (the site of Omni Hotel today), the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad headquarters (now CSX), and a riverfront parking lot (now the Landing). Burns was the governor who introduced Walt and Roy Disney to Florida as they announced their plans to open Walt Disney World. Returning to Jacksonville after his term ended, the Haydon Burns Library was named in his honor.
Article by Ennis Davis, AICP. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com
Title image: William Sherman Jennings (far right) inspecting the dredging of the Everglades in 1907.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/136895
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