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Jetson Grimes

At some point, most little boys in Newtown sit in Jetson Grime’s chair for a haircut.
Grimes is an entrepreneur and a community organizer. He picked up activism from his mentor Robert “Bud” Thomas, also a barber. At the urging of her sister, Grimes’ mother left Georgia to find work in the homes of wealthy Sarasota families. She contracted tuberculosis and was placed in a treatment facility leaving her baby in the care of a godmother.
Grimes’ guardian, Lenora Madame Brooks, a midwife of Cuban descent delivered many of Newtown’s children because Sarasota Memorial Hospital was inaccessible to African Americans. Brooks was considered a neighborhood physician. Her husband, also Cuban made cigars in a nearby space on 35th Street. Newtown residents gathered around the radio at their house to hear boxing matches. At 11, Grimes was cared for by an aunt, another entrepreneur who operated a janitorial service in the early 50’s. Business ownership is in his DNA. He can’t escape it; and after 37 years of entrepreneurship, he doesn’t plan to.