Grace Bell Rogers Biography by John A. Leynes Jr. - Monday, August 31, 2009

As told to me by Grace Rogers in early 2009

Grace Bell was born in Jacksonville, Florida, September 16, 1913, with no middle name.

The family lived on 7^th Street, downtown, between Cottage and 10^th Street.

Her father was John M. Bell, a realtor, and her mother was Grace Irene Mann.

Her grandfather, Austin S. Mann, was a Florida State Senator.

She attended elementary school at Atlantic Beach where the family lived at that time.

Grace’s took her first job at age 12, selling magazine subscriptions. She opened a bank account at Barnett Bank and said that this was a very important boost to her self confidence. She recommended that all children should have a bank account!

Grace told me that she liked the actress Cynthia Day, very much, and when attending the John Gorrie school once back in Jacksonville, she began to use that name and had told everyone that was her name. One day when Grace’s mother came to school for her, the school staff told her mother that they did not have a student by the name of Grace Bell, only a Cynthia Bell. She said her mother straightened that out rather quickly and she was henceforth known correctly as Grace.

One of her great loves was dancing. She told me about dancing at Jacksonville Beach. She said that some times, so many boys wanted to dance with her that she seldom was able to leave the dance floor. I grew up in the old Ortega area, and remembered the remnants of a dance hall on a pier that was located on the northeast side of the Grand Avenue draw bridge. I asked her if she ever danced there to which she replied “Oh my goodness yes, it was owned by Milton Bacon and Pete McCrainey.”

She graduated from Lee High School in 1931, and met Alex Segraves, when she was 14 in 1927, when he was a freshman. He graduated from Georgia Tech in 1932. They were married in 1932.

Grace had two children, a daughter, Cynthia, was born in June, 1936, and a son, William (Bill), was born in August, 1937.

Alex’s father had opened an automotive body repair shop in 1926, located at St. Johns Ave. and Ingleside, on the Westside of Jacksonville, which Alex continued to operate.

They purchased what is now the marina property on Roosevelt Boulevard in 1955, after the cypress lumber mill, which was located there, burned to the ground in a spectacular fire.

During this time, Grace worked for the Internal Revenue Service, and was the head of one of the departments within the IRS. She retired from the IRS after 21 years of service, at the age of fifty.

Alex Segraves, died January 7^th, 1962. In 1963, Grace married a close friend of theirs, Norman Rogers, who worked for McCall’s pest control. The permit to build the marina was to expire shortly after they married, so Norman left McCall’s, finished the marina before the permit expired, and together they began operation of Segraves Service Center & Marina. They were married 23 years, before Norman died in 1986.

It was during this time, in 1966, when I first met Mr. & Mrs. Rogers, as Grace had given me my first job, part time, at the Marina. I pumped gas on the docks, and made American Automobile Association service road calls, to fix flat tires, bring gas and give battery boosts to get cars started again. I have to say that Grace and Norman were a good match, as they “routinely enthusiastically discussed” day to day decisions, and ran me ragged trying to keep up with task assignments from both of them!

The current business location, the big white building, was built in 1964, for an old friend, Lester Jones, who operated a furniture company in that building for many years.

I had gone on to college, the Navy, and worked as an electronics engineer for Southern Bell for thirty years. Upon retirement in 2001, and returning to Jacksonville in 2003, I had purchased a small sports boat. In 2005, I was planning to take the boat to Cedar Key for a short trip and needed a chart of that area. I had mostly forgotten about the Pier 17 operation, and Mrs. Rogers, but was asked by the West Marine store man, if I knew about Pier 17, because that was the place to get charts. I said “oh my gosh, yes.”

I proceeded to Pier 17 to get my chart. I was certainly shocked but pleasantly surprised when I walked into the store, to see Mrs. Rogers still there and firmly in charge! I introduced myself to her again and said, “Mrs. Rogers you probably don’t remember me, I’m John Leynes and you gave me a part time job 40 years ago when I was in high school.” I also told her I was retired and now back in Jacksonville. She said she remembered me, and that if I was retired I couldn’t be doing anything important, that she needed help with the upcoming boat show, and I should come back to work for her a couple of days a week! I thought about it and agreed. This brought about my re-acquaintance with her, and introduction to Cynthia, whom I had not met previously. Until the last year of her life, her mind was just as sharp as anyone’s, and she delighted in talking with the many friends who came by to see her at the store. Anyone who knew her knew of her wonderful sense of humor.

It has been a unique, challenging and rewarding experience working for the first lady of Pier17, and a prominent figure in the Jacksonville Marine Industry for so many years.

Grace Bell Segraves Rogers.

She will not soon be forgotten, and will be missed by many.

John A. Leynes Jr. - Monday, August 31, 2009