WAY BACK WHEN: Alice Dees Kennedy

Editor’s note: Way Back When is a new feature that records and preserves the stories and memories of lifelong West Orange and Southwest Orange residents.

Alice Dees Kennedy wasn’t quite 4 when her maternal grandfather passed away, so she doesn’t remember much about him — but she has always known about him and the important role he played in the history of Winter Garden.

That grandfather was A.B. Newton, who came to the area as a young man in 1892 and set up the first store, started the first newspaper, became the first postmaster and served as the first mayor.

As a child, Kennedy, the namesake of Alice Newton, spent a great deal of time with her maternal grandmother. It was during World War II, and her mother, Pauline Newton Dees, had to work because Dees’ husband, Cecil Dees, was drafted into the military and was serving in Europe.

“She got me into reading,” Kennedy said of her grandmother. “Every afternoon, it was a chapter in a book, like the Bobbsey Twins or Grimms’ Fairy Tales or Aesop’s Fables. Even now I love to read. Or she told stories of when she was growing up.”

Kennedy was born at 125 W. Smith St., her grandparents’ home — built by A.B. Newton — the same house in which her mother was born and raised as well. Kennedy’s earliest memories, however, are of growing up with her brother, Arthur, across the street from the Newtons on South Highland Avenue.

‘EVERYBODY KNEW EVERYBODY’

“Winter Garden was like Mayberry; everybody knew everybody, knew each other’s families,” Kennedy said. “It was an ideal place to be.”

For fun, the neighborhood children gathered for card games and board games. They giggled and gossiped during slumber parties. They visited the Winter Garden Theatre for the latest movies, which always included a news reel sharing the latest about the war, something Kennedy tried to avoid since her father was in the middle of the fighting.

Summertime meant Kennedy and her neighborhood friends, including Tommy DeLoach, Bobby DeLoach, Sue Britt and Billy Britt, walked to the community pool for swim lessons and water fun.

Each hurricane season, Kennedy recalled, her mother allowed each of her children to invite one friend to stay over for the duration of the storm.

Some of her best friends growing up were Jane Briley Voss, Barbara Taylor Joiner and Sarah Jo Keller. When they were young, they were invited to the home of Lakeview High School Principal J.S. Kirton to learn how to be proper young ladies.

“She failed on that,” Kennedy said. “We were about 2 years old; we were just learning to dress ourselves.”

Kennedy and her friends attended Winter Garden Elementary School, once located on South Main Street. Everyone walked or rode their bicycles.

She said she can still remember where her classrooms were and fondly recalls teachers such as Almeda Geiger Harris, Ruby Harris Roper, Courtney Gufford, Sinah Dickensen, Kathryn Wright Petris, Margaret Holbrook and Anne Tomyn Stevens.

Following Winter Garden Elementary, students moved on to Lakeview High School. Kennedy, who considered herself the studious type in school, participated in the Beta Club, National Honor Society and Tri Hi Y. She remembers taking Latin because two classmates wanted to be doctors and 20 students had to sign up for the class for a teacher to be provided. Kennedy said they did not go on to become doctors, but she did find Latin useful, if only for determining word derivatives.

Kennedy graduated from Lakeview High in 1955 alongside 66 other seniors.

DOWNTOWN SHOPPING

Plant Street boasted multiple pharmacies when Kennedy was in school.

“The two downtown places that people went so much were the two pharmacies, Tibbals (Rexall Drugs) and Davis pharmacies,” Kennedy said. “Tibbals was more of a sandwich shop, so more of us gravitated to Davis’, and every now and then we had Pat Tibbals with us, and we went over to Tibbals Pharmacy.”

A third pharmacy, owned by John and Ann Harrell at Main and Plant streets, was less of a teenage hangout, she said. Leader Department Store was popular for clothes shopping, and many of her friends went to the Silver Coach, across from First Baptist Winter Garden, for hamburgers.

Kennedy held several jobs in downtown Winter Garden through the years. She sold men’s clothing at Thornal Army Navy Store, on East Joiner Street, and worked weekends at Hoag’s 5 and 10 dime store on Plant, doing whatever needed to be done, she said.

After graduation, Kennedy did secretarial work for attorney Ed Hanlon, whose office was located where the weekly farmers market now takes place.

“If you wanted to really go shopping, you would go the day after Thanksgiving, and you would catch a bus in Winter Garden across from the post office and city hall,” she said. “They would let you off on Central (Boulevard), and you walk down one road and across the street and back up and you’ve seen downtown Orlando. There were dime stores, McCrory’s, Woolworth’s, Kress', Sears, Ivey’s, Dickson and Ives, a dress shop called New, and there was a shoe store on the corner of Central and Orange Avenue. If you couldn’t get it at Leader Department Store (in Winter Garden), you could get it there.”

In those days, Kennedy said, she could buy three nice outfits with one paycheck.

DADDY’S GROCERY STORE

When Cecil Dees returned from his service in World War II, he worked for a short time at Arnold’s Seed & Feed Store before purchasing a grocery store in Oakland and naming it Dees’ Groceries, Meats & Frozen Foods. It was located at the northeast corner of Tubb Street and Oakland Avenue. The building still stands today.

“It was a hometown store,” Kennedy said. “It was the kind of place where charge cards were not even heard of at the time. (My father) had some … small books and he would write each person’s balance each time, and at the end of the month they would come in and pay their bills. It was a typical country store. He had a good meat market. He didn’t have the big selection you have nowadays, but it was close by.

“He was never open on Sunday, but, if somebody came by in an emergency, of course he would open it up and let them in if they needed gas,” Kennedy said.

Cecil and Pauline Dees operated the grocery store for 28 years before selling the operation to William Boatman, who leased the store to Edyth Smallbone.

A FAMILY AFFAIR

Church was an important part of Kennedy’s upbringing. Her parents were active members of First Baptist Church Winter Garden, and her father served as a deacon there. Her grandmother, Alice Newton, attended there as well, but A.B. Newton preferred going to the Primitive Baptist Church on North Dillard Street.

Kennedy’s paternal grandparents lived in Williston and died when she was young.

“There are not a lot of memories because, at that time, gas was rationed and you didn’t drive places,” she said.

In 1975, the park in Winter Garden near Lake Apopka was named Newton Park in honor of Kennedy’s grandfather and dedicated to him for his contributions to the city. Newton’s daughter, Pauline Newton Dees, and granddaughter, Alice Dees Kennedy, were among the family present to witness the momentous event.