A tireless educator, successful farmer, country storeowner and agricultural extension agent, the late Miles Edward Groover transcended racial barriers at a time when Florida was still segregated. Born on a Jefferson County plantation on March 16, 1887, Groover grew on his grandparents’ rented 60-acre farm and raised hogs, cows and chickens, along with vegetables and fruit. He took over the operation at the age of 14 when his grandfather died. Groover received a high school certificate from Florida Memorial College in 1904 and studied summers at colleges in the South. He later became a public school teacher and served as the first African-American county agriculture agent in Jefferson County. Groover received the Achievement Award for Meritorious Service to Florida Agriculture from Florida A&M University and the Founder and President’s Award for Outstanding Contributions from the Jefferson County Farmers Union, which he started.
A distinguished cattle rancher, an effective legislator and a pioneer for women, the late Edna Pearce Lockett was as comfortable on a ranch chatting with a Cracker cowboy as she was working the halls of the Legislature. Born in Fort Basinger, Fla., to a Central Florida pioneer family, she grew up on the family’s ranch near the Kissimmee River. Her days in ranching spanned from the last of the great cattle drives to the use as helicopters to spot stray cattle, an innovation she introduced. She was the third woman elected to the Florida House of Representatives, an officer in the Highlands County and Florida Cattlemen’s Association,s and founding board member of Highlands General Hospital. Lockett was a devoted alumna of Florida Southern College and was president of the Alumni Association, elected to the Board of Trustees and named Honorary Chancellor, the school’s highest honor, in 1980.
Maxey D. Love, Jr., served on the University of Florida’s Student Council and was president of the Agricultural Economics Club. After graduation in 1959, he went on to work for the Florida Council of Farmer Cooperatives. Love held such positions as chief executive officer for the Federal Loan Bank, Federal Intermediate Credit Bank and the Columbia Bank for Cooperatives and chief executive officer of the AgFirst Farm Credit Bank, Columbia, S.C. Love was appointed to the National Commission on Agricultural Finance and serves on the board of directors of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. He is a member of Alpha Zeta Centennial Honor and a distinguished Alumnus of the University of Florida.
Elliot L. Maguire’s family moved from Indiana to Florida in 1924 to work in the turpentine farming business. He received a bachelor’s of science degree in business administration from the University of Florida in 1943 and served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theater during World War II. After the war, he returned to Green Cove Springs to raise a family and join the turpentine industry. Maguire is a past president of the Southern Forest Council and the Florida Forestry Association, and is a charter member of the Clay County Chamber of Commerce. He organized and served as president of the St. Johns County Timber Growers Association and was the first in the nation to modify a Franklin skidder with a cabled forklift to carry pallets and a hydraulic claw for loading wood.
Mabel M. Simmons was a leader in the Florida ornamental horticulture industry for nearly 50 years. Born in 1917 in Ohio, Mabel Claprood went to work for a wholesale florist in 1934, and by 1939, she was president of Roman J. Claprood Co., in Columbus, Ohio. She later served as president of company operations in Florida, Ohio, West Virginia, and Alabama. She married Elsworth G. Simmons and they raised their family in Ruskin, Fla. Simmons was the first woman to operate a gladiola farm in Florida, and was at one time, the largest flower producer in the state. She served as the first woman president of the Florida Flower Association and was on the board for 24 years. She served as chairman of the American Floral Endowment and was on its board of directors for 12 years and was also on the board of the Agribusiness Institute of Florida.
