Bronson Park Founder Robbie Blake and two of her original board members, Edith Brown and Harriet Wilson are honored by Mayor Robert Partin and the Town Council.
By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
Nearly four decades after Bronson resident Robbie Blake founded a recreation park for the town’s children, the Town Council honored her Monday and the four women who helped her make it a reality.
Council members unveiled a plaque recognizing the contributions of Blake as the park’s founder and her original board of directors, former Mayor Edith Brown, former Councilwoman Harriet Wilson, Ada Marie Keeton and Nancy Bell.
Photo by Terry Witt: Bronson Park Founder Robbie Blake and two of her original board members, Edith Brown and Harriet Wilson are honored by Mayor Robert Partin and the Town Council.
The plaque will be mounted Tuesday on the largest concession stand at James H. Cobb Park between the two service windows to allow the maximum number of people to view the accomplishments of the five women.
Blake, who first conceived the idea of a park for the town 39 years ago and incorporated the Bronson Recreation Association to start fundraising activities to purchase the first 18 acres, thanked the council for the recognition.
“I just want to thank this Bronson Town Council that’s doing this,” Blake said. “We don’t have a lot of years left. It does feel good to get a thank you.”
Wilson is 99 years young.
When the Bronson Recreation Association finished paying for the original 18 acres and building the first lighted t-ball field and concession stand, the association donated the park to the town council. The council has expanded the park over time.
Many years later, the park was renamed James H. Cobb Park in memory of a former town maintenance man who passed away at a young age.
The accomplishments of Blake and her board remained largely unheralded until Councilman Berlon Weeks made a motion to honor Blake as the founder and give recognition to her board of directors. The motion was approved.
Weeks felt the recognition was long overdue and the council agreed. Mayor Robert Partin made mention of the lengthy time between the park’s founding and when Blake and her corporate board were honored.
“This is something in my heart that should have been done a long time ago, but it is now time,” he said. “We’re here to honor these five people for their unselfish time and effort they put into this many, many years ago.”
Partin was raised in Bronson but moved away for a time. When he returned to Bronson he said Blake told him about her idea to create a recreational park for Bronson’s children.
“She did it and today we have a park out here. It was because of the diligent labor and time these ladies have performed; what can we say but thank you,” he said.
When she first moved to Bronson in 1979, Blake said she began playing recreational softball on school board property in the city limits. She had small children at the time. She noticed there wasn’t a place for children to play anywhere in the town.
In 1981 she said she began reaching out and looking for a good place to build a park. She had a vision in her mind of what type of property would be needed. She began looking at topographical maps and found one piece of ground at the center of the town “where all the kids could ride to on their bikes without having to encounter rock trucks.” The property became the future town park.
She contacted people in Archer associated with the ACORN organization and they put her in touch with an attorney who could draw up the incorporation papers for the Bronson Recreation Association. After that was done, she asked for volunteers to sit as the corporate board of directors.
Blake said Keeton was in the Levy County school system at the time and organized letter writing campaigns and fundraising walks involving children. Wilson, of Wilson Abstract and Tittle, did the closing on the 18-acre property the association bought from Owens-Illinois. Wilson made sure the title was secured properly.
“Edith did so much because being the mayor she could move mountains,” Blake said.
The property was paid off with fundraising money and with $6,000 Tommy Usher paid for the pine trees on the property. Blake and Bell wrote a grant that was needed to develop the park.
“Edith went to Tallahassee and lobbied for it, and we got that first $20,000 grant,” Blake said. “Luther Drummond (then president of Levy County State Bank) loaned us the money not knowing if we would get the grant. He just trusted us.”
Blake and Brown tried to remember as many people as they could that donated time, materials and money. Brown recalls that the late businessman H.C. Henderson was a big donor and also Bronson businessman Jimmie Jerrels.
“We had a bunch of kids that did a walk that raised a lot of money, but we had just so many people helping us it’s impossible to remember all of them,” Brown said.
Blake said businessman Francis Akins built the first concession stand and a Mr. Beasley installed the electric wiring for the lights on the first t-ball field.
“But I’m old. I can’t remember” anyone else, she said.
The plaque for the five women is two feet wide by three feet high and made of composite plastic. The plaque is heavy and Partin said it’s made to last a long time. All five women were given commemorative frame certificates.
Keeton and Bell were unable to attend.
“I really think that’s a beautiful plaque,” Blake said.
Town of Bronson Regular Meeting July 16, 2019; Posted July 16, 2019
