Nine people who made extraordinary contributions to the Pensacola community are being honored in an exhibit now on display at Luna Fine Art Gallery, located in the Hilton Pensacola Beach. The Unsung Heroes exhibit was curated by gallery co-director Lisa Puzon, who was also one of the local artists to contribute artworks commemorating the honorees.
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Puzon came up with the idea for the Unsung Heroes exhibit during a conversation with a friend, who happened to be a lifelong resident of Pensacola.
“We were talking about the history of Pensacola and we both have a passion for education and children,” said Puzon. “And we were talking about how we wanted our kids to not forget what’s happened for them in the past.”
Puzon, who moved to the area about eight years ago, began inquiring about people who have made significant contributions, some of whom they knew of and others, whose stories and contributions had faded with time.
“She started giving me all these names and I just felt like we need to do an exhibit about this, because if we wait any longer, we may totally forget about these individuals,” she said. “And, I feel like we’re catching it just in time, so we can honor their contributions to the community.”
Together, they came up with the names of nine local heroes, who worked to bridge the racial and socio-economic divide, through their commitment to justice and equality.
With education as a central thread, one of the first honorees to be identified was Dr. Charles Augustus, who changed the landscape of public education in Escambia County.
In 1960, Dr. Augustus filed a federal lawsuit against the Escambia County School District after his daughter Karen was denied admission to O.J. Semmes Elementary School, based solely on her race. His lawsuit led to the dismantling of racial segregation in the county’s schools.
“To me, his contribution is really significant when you’re thinking about not just education, but inclusion,” stated Puzon. “We were able to find a couple of articles that really led to more about what he went through personally, not just the lawsuit records, and it made him really more, it made the story more human. It wasn’t just about a lawsuit, it was just a man who wanted more for his daughter, and not just for his daughter, but really for the Black community in Pensacola.”
The next three honorees, who are more contemporary, also established their legacies in the field of education. Dr. Wendy Bennett, Sandra Scott, and Modeste McCorvey each began their careers in the classroom, later served in various leadership positions, and had roles in trying to turnaround Escambia County’s once-failing elementary schools, Spencer Bibbs and A.A. Dixon.
“These three ladies were all principals in Pensacola and they actually worked together a couple of times in their lives, and one of them is through Dixon School of Arts & Sciences,” said Puzon, adding that she met them when she and husband, Shaughnessy Johnson, provided art classes for the school.
Bennett, Scott, and McCorvey all volunteered at Dixon and together wrote the charter for the now privately-run school.
“They basically took the school and, I would say, saved it,” she declared.
One of the people credited as their mentor is Rosemary Bonifay, who was also selected as an honoree. Bonifay was a teacher and outspoken advocate for equality and justice in the 1960s, while serving as a member of the local teachers’ union, the Escambia Education Association.
“And she did a walkout with teachers. She was doing that so they would have more books, just basic things that a school needs,” said Puzon, describing Bonifay as a spitfire, who accomplished many things throughout her life. “But what really stood out to me was that her mentorship to one of those ladies really made a difference. It’s just part of her legacy as well.”
Honoree Bernice Burlingame made her mark on the Pensacola community through dance. After taking ballet classes to help strengthen her legs following a childhood bout with typhoid fever, Burlingame became a dance teacher and for 60 years operated her own dance studio, which included a ballroom that was popular with servicemen stationed in Pensacola during WWII.
“One of the things I did not realize is that she was probably the only studio at the time that accepted black children, and, not only that, she also opened her dance studio to those with disabilities,” noted Puzon. “There was one that I think was blind and deaf and she was able to open her studio to all kinds of students, even if they couldn’t pay.”
As a white physician, honoree Dr. Edward Balthrop applied similar principles to his medical practice in Pensacola. He endured arrests and bomb threats for refusing to segregate his waiting room.
“And, he was the doctor, one of very few, if not the only one, that delivered Black babies back then and performed a lot of surgeries and some of them were life-saving surgeries for people, that a lot of times couldn’t pay,” she said, pointing out that the doctor, who considered himself a poet, accepted payment in kind, including fresh vegetables, barbecued goat, and coconut layered cake.
Rounding out the list of honorees are Sonny and Helen Garner, who were unsung Black business owners in Pensacola. At one point in the 1960s and 1970s, they became owners of five laundromats and a grocery store, places they once worked.
“We heard of stories that the neighbors would bring in their dirty laundry on grocery carts, and they would roll it to the laundromat and most of them could not pay, so he would just accept IOUs.”
Interestingly, Puzon says she and her husband, who’s also an artist and co-director of the Luna Fine Arts Gallery, bought a building that was once one of the Garners’ laundromats.
“So, when my husband and I bought this place and we were renovating it, he found this jar of all these IOUs and he didn’t know what they were. And, that’s what it was for, it was all these coins that they could not give. Sonny Garner would put those coins in the machines himself.”
Puzon adds that the Garners worked as a team and included all their children in the businesses and their home became a community gathering spot.
The Unsung Heroes exhibit features artworks by local artists Cris Thomasson Pope, Diane Collins, Joan Overton, Kendall Sainata, Maria Hoch, and Johnson and Puzon. The pieces were commissioned for The Hive Foundation Legacy Collection to commemorate the nine honorees.
“Some are photography, mixed media. There’re engravings. There are paintings, of course, and there’s collage,” said Puzon.
An opening reception, featuring some of the honorees and their relatives, was held on June 21. The exhibit is on display at Luna Fine Art Gallery, which is open daily inside the Hilton Pensacola Beach, 12 Via De Luna Dr. It's available for viewing through Aug. 15.
Find links to the online gallery and more information about the Unsung Heroes honorees at wuwf.org.
