This is the fourth installment of Q&A features with Brenda Eubanks Burnette, the 2024 Citrus Achievement Award winner.
What are some of the resources available to the public through the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame?
Burnette: The Florida Citrus Hall of Fame includes a digital database of Florida citrus crate labels, postcards, citrus industry photographs and a variety of artifacts, books, magazines, correspondence and films. Items are loaned out to create citrus exhibits at historical societies, libraries and museum across the state. Additionally, there are over 50 oral history videos of interviews with citrus industry members who reminisce about the heritage and growth of the state’s No. 1 agricultural industry.
All of this is done through a partnership with Florida Southern College and the Florida Citrus Archives, which the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame helps oversee through an endowment at the college. The endowment funds an engaged learning program that pays for up to five fellowship students per semester to help digitize and categorize incoming citrus collections donated by the general public.
The fellowships are the Frank S. Bouis Fellowship, Frank S. Bouis Family Fellowship, John M. Kennedy Family Fellowship, D. Victor Knight Sr. Fellowship and Florida Citrus Hall of Fame Fellowship. With the help of future graduates, we are building a first-class internet presence that will enable people from throughout the world to learn about the men and women who have made the Florida citrus industry what it is today. The collections can be seen online at FloridaCitrusHallofFame.com, and archivist Jeff Zines is available to assist with industry research.
What are some of your favorite stories from the oral history interviews?
Burnette: Some of the oral histories recount how various programs started, such as the Florida Automated Weather Network, or how some of the industry groups were formed and who the movers and shakers were at the time. Many include colorful stories about some of those personalities, such as the time one of Florida Citrus Mutual’s board members got so furious during a meeting that he slammed his fist on the table and stormed out the door. Unfortunately for him, it was the door to a closet — not the door out of the room — so he had to come out and do his exit all over again! I laughed at that story until tears were coming out of my eyes just picturing how embarrassed he must have been. I bet having to come out and leave through the correct door probably made him even madder! And you know the other directors most likely never let him forget that scene for the rest of his life.
But what really comes through in all of the interviews is how much these growers loved what they did and the people they worked with that became part of an extended family.
Special thanks to TJ BioTech for sponsoring the Citrus Achievement Award program.
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