Elder Willie Mayes Jr., Rosa Lee Thomas
Elder Willie Mayes is proud of the 78-year-old church he pastors, New Zion Primitive Baptist Church and the cement business he established 45 years ago.
It is among the oldest Black owned enterprises in Sarasota. At age 14, he stopped attending school to help his family make ends meet financially. Mayes earned meager wages by working on a farm in Fruitville near where the family lived. Children in the settlement of approximately 50 residents attended school in a little church under the tutelage of Mrs. Washington and Altamese Cummings. The people walked a quarter of a mile to pump water for daily use. In 1944, the family moved to Newtown where Mango Avenue is situated between Highway 301 and the railroad tracks near the city dump. “The smoke bothered us for years. We stayed in the house most of the time to escape that smoke. There were many white birds out there getting leftovers,” Mayes said. Thomas believes their neighbors on Mango died as a result of the fumes. She keeps a record of their names as a memorial. “All of the people living on Mango Avenue, also Leonard Reid, most of them died,” Thomas recalled.
Dorothye Smith was Thomas fourth grade teacher. An unforgettable moment in her life was being chosen the 10th grade attendant of Miss Booker High School with another attendant Willie Mae (Blake) Sheffield.
