Mulberry s GEM Theater in Polk County gets $2 million renovation theledger.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theledger.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Osprey Observer
By Charles Nelson
Indeed, one of Gibsonton’s most fascinating historical characteristics is the large number of carnival workers who called the town home. But the carnival folks didn’t create ‘Gibtown,’ as they called it. Gibsonton got its start in 1923, when Tampa attorney James B. Gibson Jr. sought to turn his family’s “old homestead” into a thriving new community during Florida’s 1920s Great Land Boom.
In 1884, James Barney Gibson Sr. moved his family to Hillsborough County from Alabama to start anew. He chose a homestead on the south bank of the sparsely settled Alafia River (west of today’s U.S. 41). Long ago, that location seemed the site of a small, native village dating to around 800 A.D. (A large shell mound and a burial mound stood on Gibson Sr.’s homestead.) His family made a reasonable living in farming and in selling shell to pave roads in Hillsborough County. Yet, it was his son who became the father of Gibsonton.
Beloved Mulberry High School employee dies from COVID-19Â
Josh Cascio reports
MULBERRY, Fla. - Maria Hernandez, 55, was known as the Mulberry Momma Bear. It is a fitting title. She had six children and was a dedicated staff member at Mulberry High School, working in the guidance office. She is described as passionate, often going out of her way to see the students succeed. She supported them in any way she could, said her daughter, Jamie Waring.
Hernandez recently passed away after a three-week battle with COVID-19. She s believed to be the first person in the Polk County School District to die from the virus.
LAKELAND Polk County Public Schools are in negotiations with the Florida Department of Health’s Polk County office to put school district employees who are 65 or older near the front of the vaccination line.
“We did have some brief conversations about rolling out shots,” Deputy Superintendent John Hill said at Tuesday s School Board workshop in response to a question from School Board member Sarah Fortney. Hill said that he and Associate Superintendent for Human Resources Teddra Porteous were planning to reach out to Polk County s Department of Health Director Dr. Joy Jackson to negotiate a shot schedule for district employees.
MULBERRY – Polk County Public Schools now has at least one fatality from COVID-19.
Maria Hernandez, 55, a longtime paraprofessional and secretary in Mulberry schools, died from the virus on Thursday, according to family and friends.
“We are heartbroken about the loss of Maria,” said Michael Young, principal of Mulberry High School, where Hernandez worked in the guidance office. “She was driven by her passion to help our students and families have better futures. Maria excelled at celebrating student accomplishments and encouraging them to stretch themselves beyond their expectations. Her Instagram handle was ‘Mulberry Momma Bear,’ and it was very fitting for her – she filled in that role for all of our students.”