LIVING HISTORY
33
Jo Ann Raulerson’s photo and bio as it appeared in her senior yearbook in 1948.
who would become the clerk
of courts for St. Lucie County.
Joe Baggett was captain of the
school band and a member of
De Molay, a student fraternal
organization. Classmates voted
him most talented.
One potential young suitor
who didn’t work out was Alto
“Bud’’ Adams Jr., whose parents,
Florida Supreme Court
Judge Alto Sr. and Carra Adams,
owned the neighboring Adams
Ranch. “My dad told me my
grandmother would make fried
chicken on Sunday to bring over
to Frank Raulerson,’’ says Robert
Adams, Bud’s youngest son.
“They were trying to pair up
Dad with Jo Ann.’’
After graduation, Jo Ann
attends Rollins College, a small private liberal arts school
in Winter Park. The college yearbook lists her as attending
in 1949, 1950 and 1951. Debra believes that Mother Lou and
Granddad Frank were hoping that by sending her to nearby
Rollins, also in the heart of Florida citrus and cattle country,
Jo Ann might find a mate that could help run the ranch after
they were gone.
“Mother didn’t really want to go to Rollins,’’ Debra says.
“That was Mother Lou’s deal. I think Mother probably
wanted to go farther away from home and have a little
more freedom.’’
During a college break, Kindred recalls Jo Ann telling him
that she and Baggett were no longer dating. Baggett attended
the University of Florida for 2 ½ years before enlisting in the
Air Force in 1951. He was from a family of six boys and one
girl, with all of the boys serving in the military. He flew 54
firefighter bomber missions in Korea and died during a combat
mission in Vietnam in 1965.
“I think Joe Baggett probably did love her but for whatever
reason they didn’t hang on together,’’ Debra says. “In her
later years, Mother always spoke very fondly of Joe.’’
Though Jo Ann appears close to getting her degree, she never
graduates from Rollins. The year leading up to what would
have been her graduation was hectic. In March 1951, Mother
Lou and Granddad Frank celebrate their 50th anniversary, an
event noted in newspapers from Miami to Tampa. But Mother
Lou, in declining health, dies nine months later at the age of 71.
Frank’s loss was so profound that he pays for a speaker
system to be installed at the Fort Pierce Cemetery that gently
chimes music during funerals regardless of the denomination.
A tablet in stone at a traffic circle in the cemetery dedicates
the system to the memory of Annie Louise.
ENTER TOMMY
During Mother Lou’s last months, Jo Ann meets a handsome
self-assured clothing and shoe salesman named Tommy
Sloan while she was shopping at I.M. Water’s menswear store
in downtown Fort Pierce.
“He kind of swooned her,’’ Debra says. What was even better
was that he had the approval of Mother Lou and Granddad.
“They wanted her to have somebody who could help
run the ranch,’’ Debra says. “Mother Lou loved him because
he brought her booze.’’
Thomas Leighton Sloan, also known as T.L., was born in
1932 in Barrows, Georgia, outside Atlanta, the son of railway
inspector Aubrey Sloan and his wife, Catherine, aptly known
as Honey. The family moves to Fort Pierce in 1948 while Tommy
is in high school, living hard by the railway tracks at 211
Ave. E. Aubrey became disabled and the affable Honey later
worked as a longtime motor carrier for The News-Tribune.
Jo Ann’s daughters say Aubrey and Honey spoiled their
father growing up and instilled in him a sense that he could
get whatever he wanted. One of his greatest strengths was
getting people to see things his way. “He could sell ice to
Eskimos,’’ Kathy says.
The differences in social stature and wealth between Jo
Ann and Tommy were widely known, with Tommy always
having to overcome the notion that he was after Jo Ann for
her money.
There was also a slight difference in age. Tommy was two
years younger than Jo Ann. Later in life, he’d often add a few
years to his age to make it appear he was older than he was.
His high school yearbook reveals that his charming ways
came early. As a senior, he was class secretary-treasurer and
was voted most popular boy in school, quite an achievement
since he had been at the school for just two years. He also
was voted biggest flirt by his fellow seniors in the Class of
1950. On the gridiron, he played flanker and was known as
Choo Choo.
Jo Ann dated Joe Baggett her
senior year of high school but
the couple broke up while going
away to separate colleges.
Baggett became a decorated
Korean war pilot who was shot
down and killed on a mission in
Vietnam in 1965.
Tommy Sloan’s photo and bio as it appeared in the senior year yearbook in 1950.
>>