Daughter of Safety Harbor Herald Publisher Visits the Library

Not everyone gets their wedding announcement on the front page of a newspaper, but Phyllis Shower did in 1961 when she married her sweetheart, University of Florida graduate, George Shipley.  Phyllis is the daughter of Franklin Shower, the son of the owner and publisher of the Safety Harbor Herald.  Her grandfather, Alvin Ernest (A. E.) Shower, was the founder and original owner of the Herald. 

In 1913, A. G. Waldron published The Tropical Breeze in Safety Harbor and enlisted the help of veteran publisher A. E. Shower.  One year later, Shower purchased the weekly publication and the newspaper became a family affair with his wife Virginia, as the social reporter.  He promptly renamed the newspaper the Safety Harbor Herald, and from 1914 to 1989, the Herald captured the news and happenings of Safety Harbor.   

We recently had the pleasure of meeting with Phyllis, her husband George, and her son and daughter-in-law Glenn and Dianne Shipley.  They shared information about their family and donated several copies of the Safety Harbor Herald to complement the Library’s existing collection, along with samples of old Linotypes.  The Library has a Herald collection consisting of scattered issues with dates ranging from 1925 through 1989, preserved (de-acidified and encapsulated in Mylar sleeves) which are accessible to the public for viewing within the Library.  The documents are also available in PDF format in our online collection.  http://cdm15899.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm. In the near future, the collection will migrate to another online searchable history collection sponsored by the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative.  The donated Linotypes will be displayed in the Library in the future. 

The Shower family has deep roots in Safety Harbor dating back to 1913 when A.E. Shower moved from Wisconsin with his wife Edith and established their roots in Safety Harbor on Fourth Avenue North.  Franklin was born in 1917.  His older brother Dwight, born in 1903, was the Safety Harbor postmaster for nearly 50 years.   The family attended the Safety Harbor Methodist Church right across the street where A.E. was an early church administrator and Edith was the church organist from 1914 to 1955.  The historic church was relocated to Heritage Village in 1977.

Franklin remained a Safety Harbor resident and resided next to his parents in the house which now is Green Springs Bistro, where he lived with his wife Virginia and his three daughters, Phyllis, Cynthia, and Pamela.  Phyllis grew up on that corner of Fourth Avenue North and Second Street, attended the Safety Harbor School and was in the first graduating class of the newly built Clearwater High School in 1955.

Her mother, Virginia, was a teacher at the Safety Harbor School for 40 years and her uncle, Samuel Hendricks (Virginia’s brother), was the school principal in the early 1940s.    Her students included former commissioner and Mayor Claude Rigsby.  Virginia ran the paper after the death of her husband before selling it.

Phyllis recalls a bricked Main Street in Safety Harbor, wider than today and fondly remembers spending time as a child at the pier swimming and crabbing with close friends Sally Mertens and Luanna Petri, whose father ran the train depot.  She remembered that boys were fond of climbing to the roof of the pier and jumping over the catwalk into the Bay during the summer months. Bicycles were the mode of transportation to Clearwater along with the train, especially during rationing of fuel during WWII.  Phyllis once rode all the way to Clearwater on the front handles of her father’s bicycle.  Bingo parties at the Spa were popular with the locals and Phyllis remembered winning an afghan during one of her luckier games.  Although Phyllis has traveled to all seven continents and no longer has a Safety Harbor address, she still calls this small city in Pinellas County, home. 

-L. Kothe