BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Lake Butler officials, the family of Fletcher Myers, and others gathered to mark the rededication of Fletcher Myers Park on Saturday, September 27.
Former Florida Gators Chaplain Patrick Maxwell began the ceremony with an invocation, recalling that Myers, whom he called “Uncle Flash,” took him to Gator games on Saturdays and ensured he attended church the following day.
“He taught me about commitment and dedication to God,” Maxwell told the crowd. “And for that, I am very grateful.”
Myers, who died on February 1 at the age of 87, was Lake Butler’s first African American commissioner and mayor, leading the city from July 1991 to July 1992, and serving on the commission for 31 years.
‘He did not want it to be about race.’
The honoree’s wife for 62 years, Louvonia Myers said her late husband was a politician before the couple moved from Baker County to Lake Butler. She said he did not hold office in the MacClenny area but worked at Northeast Florida State Hospital and was always concerned for the well-being of others.
Myers’s daughter, Debbie Fuller, remembered campaigning for her father when she was in the seventh grade.
“We went to everybody’s churches,” she remembered. “It didn’t matter what church you were from because he said, there’s no one race that can do everything.”
Myers’s daughter said that even though her father wanted African Americans to improve their lives, his highest priority was to unite the city.
“He wanted the community to come together,” she said. “He did not want it to be about race. He wanted everybody to be part of the community.”
Vice Mayor Rondoll Huggins said that shortly after he decided to run for the city commission, Myers talked to him about what it takes to succeed in public service.
“You’ve got to have thick skin,” Huggins recalled of the advice the seasoned politician gave him. “He said, you can’t wear your feelings on your shoulders. So, I shared with him, in (my management job), that I walk around with duck feathers, meaning today’s events roll off, not carrying them into tomorrow. I thanked him for the words of wisdom he shared with me.”
‘After a year, I thought he hated me.’
Commissioner Fred Sirmones told the crowd that Myers recruited him to take Myers’s place on the commission.
Sirmones added that Myers taught him the ropes of local politics and that he is grateful for the time the retired commissioner spent with him, even though Myers may not have agreed with some of his protégé’s votes.
“After a year, I thought he hated me,” remembered Sirmones, adding that one of the realities of public service is that you cannot please everyone.
“Regardless of whatever you do, and how well you do it, some people are going to be against you,” he said. “Just do what you think is best for the city.”
Huggins said the city has recently made improvements to the park, located on Southeast Sixth Street, across the street from Little Rainbow’s Learning Center.
He said the city fenced the property, placed a sign on the pavilion, and erected a monument near the park’s entrance commemorating Myers’s public service.
Neighbor, mentor and unwavering advocate
During the ceremony, the vice mayor read a proclamation that commissioners had approved shortly after Myers’s passing and then read a rededication statement.
Huggins, reading from the statement, said Myers’s accomplishments far exceeded his role as a government official.
“Calling him commissioner barely scratches the surface of who he truly was,” Huggins said. “Mr. Myers was a neighbor, mentor, and an unwavering advocate for the community’s well-being and progress. He believed deeply in public service to touch and uplift lives, tirelessly working in the street and water departments or guiding city commissioners during his tenure and retirement.”
Huggins added that the park will symbolize the values Myers stood for: dedication, community, and a belief in creating a brighter future together.
“So, as laughter fills these playgrounds,” Huggins said, “(families) gather for picnics, let these joyful sounds echo as parts of his enduring legacy.”
“May Mr. Fletcher Myers’s spirit,” the Vice Mayor concluded, “be a guiding light in this community, sparking the same integrity and passion in future generations that he modeled daily.”
