A Collection of Personal Stories --Part 1

 

PERSONAL STORIES FROM the MIAMI GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB

 

 

1957 Tom Pat Wilson—I remember great times at the dances in the ballroom. One time my cousin and I were supposed to babysit my little brother, Bobby, during the dance and party. Being a ornery older brother I decided to teach him how to scratch his butt and stick his finger up his nose. The idea was that he would do that in front of adults and make them laugh.

Needless to say, we were in serious trouble when my parents discovered Bobby’s new trick.

My favorite memory of those times at the club was when Dad would use the “pull my finger and fart” joke on the kids. We laughed ourselves silly and then I taught my daughter how to do it.  Dad joke

 

1960s-80’s Gary West recalls his personal stories as twofold.

 

The early days playing four to nine holes depending upon my age and the later years when I moved back from San Francisco to Miami of playing after work and coming down the 18th hole when it was almost dark and still finding our balls.

 

I have really enjoyed reading your stories and seeing pictures from high school days, my parents’ friends and how lucky we were to have grown up in such a great place.

 

 

1960-1970’s Mark Cordell shares his reflections.

 

Thank you for the note.  I have enjoyed reading your writings on Miami Country Club history.  I think we were all very fortunate to have had an opportunity to grow up at MGCC. 

My Mother and Father were both a big influence in my golf.  Mom and Dad both played and made sure my brother and two sisters had an opportunity to learn and play golf.  In other words, we were a “Golfing Family”.  I still remember the Sunday afternoon nine-hole Family golf games. They were always there to help guide us with the golf game and how to act on the course.  One thing I am not  proud of happened during the summer.  We played a lot of golf.  As a kid playing golf, I thought the thing to do was to hit a club against something when you missed a shot.  (Not the thing to do but probably was trying to act big as I had seen some of the older guys do it.)

 Well, on (the original) #6 I  pushed my drive into the right rough close to a tree.  I missed the next shot and hit my 3 iron against a tree.  It snapped!!  After some careful thought, I told my dad that night that my ball was up against a tree and when I tried to hit it, I hit the tree on the follow through and it snapped.  Little did I know, my dad had come out to play in the evening and from the putting green saw the whole thing.  So, in the middle of the summer I was banned from the golf course for a week and never had a 3 iron until I was I high school!  He told me that if golf made me that mad then I shouldn’t be playing.  Lesson Learned!!!

Another big influence on my golf was your father.  We were very fortunate to have a Pro who had time for kids.  During the Summer your dad would give us Juniors Friday morning golf clinics before Junior Golf. 

As you probably remember, your dad was a BIG believer in the grip!!  He was a “thumb of your left hand straight down the shaft and your right-hand V covering the left hand”.  We all tended to stray from this allowing the left hand to become stronger but whenever he was around, we quickly moved it back.  He would ride up on us when we were on the course and ask to see our grip.  Of course, it was always correct when he did this. 

What really threw us off was when he watched us without us knowing it and he would see that our grip was out of position. We would get a little lecture on the correct grip every time!!  I have played a lot of golf over the past 65 years. (we could not start playing golf until we were 6 at MGCC).  Today, when I take a lesson and the teacher says your grip is too weak and you need to get that left hand in a much stronger position, I can’t help but think about what your father would be saying!

I currently live in Houston.  I am a member of the Champions Golf Club.  The Club was founded by Jackie Burke Jr. and Jimmy Demaret.  Mr. Demaret passed away many years ago, but Mr. Burke passed away last January just a few days before his 101^st Birthday.  He was at the club most days and loved to talk to whomever about golf. I visited with him one day about your father.  I asked him if he had ever heard of Johnie Stapp.  He said “yes, I think I remember him”.  I told him about the time he spent with us as Juniors teaching us not only the swing/grip but how to act on a golf course.  He said consider yourself very fortunate to have had someone like that helping guide you.

**Yes, my father and Jackie Burke met in California after the war, most likely at the Bing Crosby Clam Bake.  He kept a picture of Jackie on the wall of the pro shop for decades.

You asked about the people I played with.  Scotty Jackson was a very close friend.  We remain close to his wife Leah who is coming to visit in a couple weeks. Scotty, Jackie Mann, Tim Schofield, Charlie Grayson, Steve Reneger, Jonya Stapp, Susie Wickham were people I remember playing with.  Mark Wojcik, the Painters, John Robinson Jr. were all older.

I lost contact with many people.  After college I spent time in Tulsa, transferred to Los Angeles, back to Tulsa and then ended up in Houston.  Had the opportunity to play golf along the way. I retired about 5 years ago.  Spent a lot of time traveling internationally with my job.  Today I try to play 3-4 times a week, and have 5 grand kids (10, 7, 5,4,2). Three of the grand kids like to play golf, so I am never too far from the game!!

Mom just turned 99!!  What a remarkable Lady!!  I try to get to OKC every couple of months to visit.  She played golf until a few years ago.  She would always tell me she was losing distance and there was one hole at the Greens where she could just not get her tee ball over the pond, but she was going to keep trying!!!

 

**Dear Readers, if you have stories to share please send them to me by June 15, 2024.  Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts.  Letty

 

 

1950-1996 George Coleman, Jr. Miami Years, part 2

 

Coleman family crest found in carpet of the Coleman Theater.

1950 January 11 MDNR  "George Coleman, Jr., Re-elected by Bank"

George L. Coleman, Jr., was re-elected president of the Miami First National bank at an annual meeting of stockholders and directors. Other officers include: C.H. Mullendore, executive vice-president; R.J. Tuthill, vice-president; D. F. Ogden, cashier, and C.V. Ayres, J.B. Lehmer, H.S. Maupin and W.S Vanatta, assistant cashiers.  

Members of the board of directors are Richard Beck, George L. Coleman, Jr., V.D. Cooper, Sam Fullerton, Jr., J.H. Griffin, M.K. Hutts, Ray McNaughton, C.H. Mullendore, J.A. Robinson, John F. Robinson, R.J. Tuthill, C.P. Williams, Richard F. Wills, F. L. Wormington and C.E Youse. 

(Mr. Coleman was a director of Florida Sun Incorporated and a director of Pennzoil Company, and its predecessor companies for 33 years. Former corporate directorships included Detroit Baseball Company, and Chris Craft industries.)

1950 May 16 "Thirty-two Americans in British Open"

Thirty-two yanks are entered in the British Amateur golf championship starting next Monday.....For the most part, including Bing Crosby, the roundup at historic St. Andrews in Scotland is strictly a rich man's holiday. Among the competing Yanks are socialites, tobacco wholesalers, a bank president, a steamship executive, a Wall Street broker, an oil man, and a dozen more who no longer have to work for a living. 

Auto Dealer, Ed Lowery of San Francisco, who caddied for Francis Quimet when the Bostonian won the U.S. Open in 1913 will try again as will Quimet. Other entrants include: George L. Coleman, Jr, a bank president from Miami, Oklahoma.

1950 August 22 The Ardmoreite "National Amateur Results"

 Defending champion Charlie Coe of Oklahoma City, was impressive in his 5 and 4 victory over Tom Jamison of Greensburg, Pa. Coe was one of a few who trimmed par, being one under for the 14 holes needed. In other first round results George L. Colman, of Miami, Ok. def. Emerson Carey, Jr. of Hutchinson 7 and 6. Today's pairing George Coleman vs. Marshall Trammell.

 

1953 January 2, San Mateo Times "Gala List of Golfers Ready to Play in Crosby Tourney"

 Pebble Beach (UP) More than 100 top-flight amateur golfers, including scores of motion picture, radio and sports celebrities have been invited to play in the $10,000 Bing Crosby national pro-amateur golf championship of 1953. The tourney will be played January 9,10, and 11 on the Monterey Peninsula golf course.  

In addition to the old crooner himself, the player list includes such entertainment names as Leo Durocher, Phil Harris, Bob Hope, Gordon McRae, Randolph Scott, and Johnny Weismullier.  Other players include George L. Coleman, Jr., Pebble Beach and  Eddie Lowery, San Francisco. (List abbreviated)

 

1955 May 26 MDNR  "Scholarships to 100 Here"

More than 100 scholarships have been contributed by Miami business firms, civic groups, and individuals for students entering Northeastern A & M College next autumn. 

Dr. Bruce G. Carter noted that Eagle-Picher will contribute 10 scholarships, and B.F. Goodrich, Walter Head confirmed that Goodrich will add it's fair share to the scholarships. Other firms and individuals offering one or more scholarships include the following: Milner-Berkey, by H.A. Berkey; Miami News-Record; Lowry Ford; Charles Burtrum; Neil Norton; Stephenson Pontiac; Mrs. and Mrs. Charles M. Harvey, Jr.; John A. Robinson; John F. Robinson; Miami Floral Co. by Lance Duff; Charles A. Neal, Sr, Charles A. Neal, Jr.; B&K by Tom Barton; Wiley Rexall drug John Wiley; C.R. Durham; Bomford Insurance Co, Tom Bomford; O.K. Plumbing Co, Lisle Torbert; Warren Wilbur; Coca-Cola Carl Hilliard; Meadow Gold, Ed Jones; Miami Savdings and Loan; Cooper Funeral Home; Plannett Cleaners;Owens & Wallace legal firm; AAUW, Mrs. David Steele; Junior Chamber of Commerce;  Miami Lions club; Miami Rotary club.

Dr. F.L. Wormington; R.J. Tuthill; Dr. Rex Graham; M.K. Hutts, George L. Coleman, Jr.; Sam C. Fullerton, Jr.; Joe S. Thompson; C.E. Youse, Elmer Isern, Al White;Miss Nellie Dobson and S.B. Dobson; Gordon Walkers, Merrill Chaney, George Walbert. 

** This is the community which makes me proud. Everyone stepped in to help others.

1956     THE MATCH BY MARK FROST

In 1956, a casual bet between two millionaires eventually pitted two of the greatest golfers of the era -- Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan -- against top amateurs Harvie Ward and Ken Venturi.

The year: 1956. Decades have passed since Eddie Lowery came to fame as the ten-year-old caddie to U.S. Open Champion Francis Ouimet. Now a wealthy car dealer and avid supporter of amateur golf, Lowery has just made a bet with fellow millionaire George Coleman. Lowery claims that two of his employees, amateur golfers Harvie Ward and Ken Venturi, cannot be beaten in a best-ball match, and challenges Coleman to bring any two golfers of his choice to the course at 10 a.m. the next day to settle the issue. Coleman accepts the challenge and shows up with his own power team: Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson, the game's greatest living professionals, with fourteen major championships between them.

My words can't begin to share the delight and suspense of reading this story. I encourage anyone who can related to golf history and our storied past to check out the book from the nearest library and read it, purchase your own copy.    

1958 July 10 MDNR "SOCIALITES' GEMS STOLEN--$100,000"

Theft of jewelry from the Pebble Beach, California home of Mr. and Mrs. George L. Coleman, Jr., of Miami rated BOXCAR headlines in the San Francisco Chronicle's July 2 final edition, a copy of which has reached the News-Record. Across the top of page one and measuring three and one-half inches in depth were there lines:

SOCIALITES' GEMS

STOLEN--$100,000

Details of the theft was accompanied by a picture of the Coleman's. 

 

1959 March 24, San Mateo Times "Duke and Wally Get Lost on Visit"

The former King of England and his American-born duchess, playing the role of ordinary tourist, ran into a typical tourist snafu last night when they asked direction of three young girls on the Monterey Peninsula: They got the wrong directions and spent half an hour driving around the tree-lined byways of 17-Mile Drive, while a dinner party waited patiently for them.

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, accompanied by a chauffeur, secretary, maid, valet and three pug dogs, slipped into Monterey after a long drive from Southern California, looking like many a tourist in their baggage-laden station wagon, trailer, and sedan. At last they pulled into the estate of Mrs. George L. Coleman, Jr. where they will be house guests. After a stay in Pebble Beach they will continue their journey of parties and social engagements in California.

1959 November 1  AP George L. Coleman, Jr. Weds Dawn L. Soles

 

Description: Photograph taken for a newspaper owned by the Oklahoma Publishing Company. Caption: "Wedding vows were exchanged here today between George L. Coleman, wealthy industrialist and part owner of the Detroit Tigers baseball team, and Mrs. Dawn L. Soles, Montecito, CA., socialite."

Date: November 12, 1959

Creator: Associated Press

1962 October 10 "Registrations Lag at Election Board Here"

Absentee voting interest is thriving here, but there is a surprising lack of registrations for the Nov. 4 general election, according to Secretary Jim Reed of the Ottawa County Election Board.....Seventy-one applications for absentee ballots have been filed up to mid-morning today, including these 43 not listed previously:

Miami: George L. Coleman, Jr., Dawn L. Coleman, Mary Poe, Mary Viola Sims, Grace Woodall, Ronda Kayleen Thomas, Don Coulter, Bernice Coulter, Ruth Watters, Rosemary Russell, George G. Russell.  

 

1963  The Coleman Ranch was sold, ending an era.

 

A view of the Coleman Mansion from the back side. Thank you Bob Poole for sharing this photo.

 

1963 November 27 "The Local Scene"

Mrs. Helen Johnson, who is employed in the Miami office of George L. Coleman, Jr, and Mrs. George L. Coleman, Sr., left Tuesday to join Mr. and Mrs. George L. Coleman, Jr., in Palm Beach, Florida.  

1965 

In the late winter of each year Ben and Valerie Hogan go to Palm Beach, where Ben began preparing for his first tournament appearance of the season—the Masters. This had been an unvarying custom for fifteen years, and it began because of his admiration and affection for The Seminole Golf Club, which he considers the equal of any in the world, both in design and condition.

Super-social Palm Beach may not seem the place for a man like Ben Hogan to find friends, but he has found them there. Claude Harmon was the pro at Seminole when Hogan first started going to Palm Beach. He was succeeded by Henry Picard, who was a staunch friend of Ben's in his very early days of tournament golf. The maitre de at the club and the man who was largely responsible for the excellence of the course, was Chris Dunphy, an old companion of Ben's. One year Ben and Valerie spent their holiday at Dunphy's house, where the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were frequent guests. Another of the wealthy Palm Beach gentry whom Ben and Valerie have visited was George Coleman, a man who has long been a patron of athletes. 

(George L. Coleman, Jr. was an investor in Ben Hogan's Golf equipment company in Ft. Worth. )

Ben Hogan and George Coleman 

1968 December 3 San Rafael Daily Independent Journal  

"Socialite Sues Artist Husband"

Mrs. Ann Coleman Woolworth Carmack, San Francisco socialite, filed a complaint yesterday in Superior Court for annulment of her marriage to John Carmack, landscape artist.

The complaint alleged Carmack "knew he is incapable of functioning as a husband over any sustained period of time" and had "moved into plaintiff's home intending to be supported and use plaintiff's social and family contacts to foster and finance his own speculative projects, thereby practicing a fraud."

The Carmack's were married Oct. 6, 1967 and separated Thanksgiving Day this year. Mrs. Carmack is the daughter of Mrs. W.W. Crocker, Pebble Beach and George L. Coleman, Jr, Palm Beach, Florida. She married Robert Frederick Woolworth, New York in 1954 divorced him in 1959. She has two children. 

1977 Ben Hogan visits George Coleman at his Florida home.

     In 1977, at age 65, Ben Hogan made one final trip to Florida to enjoy time with his good friend George Coleman and to play a little bit of golf at Seminole where for many years he had loved to practice in the winter months leading up to the Masters. George Coleman had a home on the water and, according to James Dodson’s biography Ben Hogan: An American Life,  Coleman and Hogan often hit balls into the ocean from that backyard. At the time of what appears to be Hogans’ last trip to Seminole Coleman had just purchased a new video camera and wanted to test it out. This led to one of the most important pieces of film ever made of Ben Hogan – The Coleman Video. Magnum184 on the Golfwrx Thread pointed out to me that you can actually see the balls land if you pay attention.

Hogan video link

1997 July 23 

George L. Coleman, age 85, of Hobe Sound, Florida, died July 23, 1997...Two of his closest friends were Bing Crosby and Ben Hogan.  

Mr. Coleman was a member of the Board of Governors of Seminole Golf Club, Juno Beach, Florida since 1959 and served as President from 1981 to 1992 and then became President Emeritus. A yearly amateur tournament is now held in honor of George L. Coleman, the prestigious George Coleman Invitational. 

Mr. Coleman had the longest membership (60 years) in the Cypress Point Club at Pebble Beach. Other memberships include the Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Georgia, Brook Club, NYC, NY, Castle Pines Golf Club, Castle Rock, CO, and Jupiter Island Club, Hobe Sound, Florida. (obit)

 

PERSONAL NOTES from emails and FACEBOOK "You Know You Are From Miami, when..."

I recall being at the Miami Airport about 1970. I asked the manager, Nelson Malochay, why the employees were busy dusting and straightening up. Nelson replied that George Jr went to OU and learned to fly, so his dad bought the land and built the airport so George Jr. could fly home to visit. That was a happy trip for me to the airport. 

Nancy

(February 18, 2018 from Debbie East)

I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who worked for the Coleman's and here is the information given. He swears it is true because he was there.

Jessie married the much older George L. Coleman. George died in 1945 at the age of 87.  She died at the age of 92 in 1972. Jessie had a cook named Mrs. Shaffer from Afton, a nanny and cook named Anna and a chauffeur and gardener name Louis. All lived in the Coleman Mansion servant quarters. Coleman's daughter, Ann, who bought the house after Jessie's death, kept the servants on until their deaths.

Jessie's car was a black Cadillac but Ann's was a Bentley and her tag was OT-1. It was taken away from her so the city could use that number as a prize for employee of the year. The Coleman's were so furious that they dropped their Country Club membership. 

Jessie gave most of her estate to her three granddaughters. She didn't give her son, George Jr., any money because he was independently wealthy. Helen Journeycake was the secretary of the trust and also for Ann. 

George Jr. married Elizabeth Fullerton. When they divorced, Elizabeth married a banker from California. When he died she married a Duke and became Duchess of Manchester. **

George Jr., then married Dawn and they lived in a home in Palm Beach but continued to fly back to Miami to visit. 

Richard Neal:

 

Ann and I were friends and kept in touch til her death. I remember one day in high school, Mrs. Coleman (Jessie) was in her late 80’s. Louis was off and I needed to go to the country club. She insisted on driving me. She rarely drove and could barely see over the steering wheel of that huge Cadillac. When we got to the country club she ignored the “new” circle drive and drove up the middle of the lawn to drop me off at the front door and returned across the lawn ignoring the new drive I could barely see her head above the wheel. Exciting ride. Mrs Coleman was a great lady.

Her sister, Jenni, was a most wonderful lady who worked the ticket booth at the Coleman Theater for life. Jenni lived in a home, owned by George Jr. It was located by the Cooper Funeral Home.

**

Footnote on Elizabeth Fullerton Fullerton Obit 

 OKLAHOMA GIRL BECOME A DUCHESS

Fascinating woman. Born in Oklahoma to a lawyer, who later became a District Judge. This part of Oklahoma was in the heart of the oil empires and she met and married, George L. Coleman, a multi-millionaire oil magnate. Her new husband had an estate in Pebble Beach, California, where they spent much of their time. On July 1, 1958, the Sheriff's Department was investigating the theft of Elizabeth's jewels valued at between $62,000 and $100,000. By 1959, Elizabeth and George were divorced. 

She became fabulously wealthy from the divorce, receiving millions plus the Pebble Beach estate that George Coleman had owned. Quite quickly, she met William Willard Crocker, scion son of the famed transcontinental railroad builder, Charles Crocker. His wife had just died and soon they were off to Europe. They married in a civil ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, followed by a church wedding in Paris. Returning from their wedding, they moved into Crocker's 53 room estate on several hundred acres in Hillsborough, San Mateo Co., California. It was named "Sky Farm." Rumors had it the marriage was one of convenience. They maintained separate bedrooms and when there was a social function, William Crocker usually attended with a woman other than his wife. The marriage lasted only four years and William died.

 Elizabeth, already a wealthy woman, inherited one half of the Crocker estate with a monthly allowance of $12,500 for personal needs. A quarter went to each of Bill Crocker's children. When the children attempted to visit the house, Elizabeth refused them admission and turned them away at the front door. Irate, the children took Elizabeth to court claiming they had been cheated out of their legitimate inheritance.

With black handkerchief in hand to dab her tears, she testified that, since Bill's demise, she had cut down on her expenses and was existing with a skeleton staff of a cook, a butler, a maid, a cleaning man and a gardener. She could no longer afford a chauffeur to drive her 1964 Rolls Royce. Yes, she had recently gone east for "health reasons" and while there had purchased a $4,000 mink coat. Otherwise, she had acquired "nothing" for herself.

An unsympathetic Judge told Elizabeth Crocker she was a fabulously rich woman even without Crocker money, and cut her allowance by $5,000 a month. After the lawsuit was finalized, Elizabeth heard about the death of a former neighbor at Pebble Beach and she became the first to offer the grieving husband condolences. Understanding each others losses, the couple soon married. In February, 1969, Elizabeth Fullerton, the girl from Miami, Oklahoma, married Alexander Montagu, the 10th Duke of Manchester. Thus the Oklahoma girl became a Duchess.

 

Research and writing by Letty Stapp Watt