Grew up in Orlando in Griffin Park. During my early years went to elementary school at Holden Street. I remember our moving to Carter Street and still continuing to go to Holden Street. Went to Jones High on the corner of Parramore and Washington for two years. We were on double session. I remember catching the bus. Part of the boys went to agriculture and the rest of us went to Coach Jackson for shop. Did that for two years.

Then they finally built the new Jones High School in 1953 out on Orange Blossom Trail and Cypress Street. Went there from nine through 12th grade and graduated in 1955. Played football, ran track. There, I came under the tutelage of Merrill LaVain, PE teacher and head football/baseball/basketball coach. He had a direct impact in shaping my outlook on life and what life is all about.

My senior year, Mr. William Hall, guidance counselor, came to the school from NY. He was very instrumental in getting seniors into college. If you wanted to go to school, Mr. Hall would get you in school. I was one of three that went to Kentucky State College in Frankfort, KY: Lewis Jacobs, Charles Brown, and myself went there on football scholarship. Did very well, it was a new experience for all of us––being that far away from home.

We were in the Midwestern Athletic Conference along with Tennessee State, Central State and Lincoln.

I was a member of the Student Counsel and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity had a beer party off campus, but they brought the beer keg back on campus and put it in the closet next to my room. As fate would have it, the beer truck driver came up on campus to get his beer keg and the first one he naturally asked was Dean Hunter, a nemeses of mine, I was already on probation for as he said, using my influence on students the wrong way. So I was summoned to the president's office and was told that I had a couple hours to get off campus.

Dr. King was just coming on with the Civil Rights Movement and it ended up I was supposed to introduce him but because of the situation, the vice-president of the Student Counsel was allowed to do that.

I came home that summer and it was the only time I can hear my mom curse. When I came home from working at the Recreation Department at Carter Street Park and she had this registered letter and said, "What in the hell is this?"

The letter in summary said, "You are hereby expelled from Kentucky State College. We will send your records to any college in the United States. You were on probation and violated… So, I then contacted Razzie Smith, Lester Seays and David Jones they were enrolled at South Carolina State, so I went to South Carolina State. I had to pay for a year. Stayed an extra year.

Got married the summer of 1960, moved to Fort Lauderdale, tried to get a job in the school system, but I wasn't one of Jake Gaither's boys so I couldn't. Ended up working at Drew High School for a year as a football coach and assistant athletic director. Lee Vandy, one of my closest friends was principle of Deerfield Junior High (segregated) and hired me as physical education teacher. From there, I went on to work with him at Dillard High School––coordinating their athletic program that was in shambles, but with a lot of hard work and leadership, we were able to turn that around. That was one of the most rewarding experiences I had as a teacher. That was the first teaching contract I had in Broward County. After that, worked for Grey Line three years and after leaving there, I worked for one year in the catering service.

After leaving there, I worked for three years for the State Department of Education and from there, back to Broward County School System as an administrator working in Title One Federal Program.

In 1992, former Judge Alcee Hastings (then attorney) ran for congress with redistricting. In November 1992 I resigned from the school system to become a part of his staff. In doing that, the last staff for a Democrat. That goes back to when he was on trial for allegedly lying under oath in a trial where he was found "not guilty". In Miami, the House of Representatives found him guilty. The Senate conducted a trial. Each of one hundred senators had to vote as to whether to impeach him or not.

Senator Specter of Pennsylvania suggested very strongly to us one evening that some member of our team should become Republican.

MY FAMILY:
My son Bruce, the oldest, and his family still reside in Germany. Vicki resides in Washington and works as Jazz Director for BET. R.D. is the chef. He and Jill are twins. Jill is a receptionist with the North Broward Hospital District.

I have one sister, Shirley Waters, she has two children and each of them has two children. She is about to retire. We have a wonderful brother - sister relationship.

I am a party and strong supporter of Governor Bush when he ran.
I am not a proponent of the FCAT. I don't like the amount of time teachers have to spend teaching to the test. I think education has improved in the past four years, there are some differences with him on the affirmative action issue. I think the contracting aspects of Affirmative Action have helped some. I'm not convinced at this point that the education efforts, especially at the college level have increased because of the initiatives of One Florida.

At this point don't know how involved I'll be in the gubernatorial election process because the congressman has his own election. We've been redistricted. There is a large segment in our district now that has not been in our district in the past. So we have new constituents that we have to establish a base with. We also have two court cases that are pending now–one in federal court, one in state court trying to see if the lines can be redrawn to some degree.

Most people don't understand the significance of the congressman and I being able to have some lines of communication open with regardless of who is in the White House or in the Governor's Mansion––whether that person is Democrat or Republican, one of us has the opportunity to try to get the ear of that person. We were pretty successful in doing that when Clinton was president, same thing when Lawton Chiles was govenor. Now that Jeb's governor, I am the point of contact. The governor can, to some degree, can have him help us with national issues––his brother being the president. The brothers, owners of Flo-Sun Sugars have been successful in doing that.