1674-9 Louis (Red) Snedigar . ! 11'1 - er
L. F. Snedigar
tIJeadAt6
Was : • . 1, ' ayor .
For Four. Terms
Co.. • .••.. ssto r Lou F.
•ed) Snediear; .ur•t me mayor
of 'N •.. - , died Sunday
i • .rn ng at St. Francis Hospital
1 .• i where he had been since suffering
a heart attack one week ago. He
' was 61 years old.
County Commission Chairman
Hugh Peters declared Snedigar
he served this community long
and well and termed his death
i "a great loss to the county."
Snedigar W9s born at Bartow,
Fla. Jan. 2. 1890. •
Asa youth, he was a schoolmate
of Sen. Spessard L. Holland.
A fighting spirit made Snedi.
gar a baseball and football nth-
,
tete still famous In the annals
of Stetson'University, Helmut],
. where he received his 1,1,11 de-
gree in IC 1 0 195
That same fighting spirt also
enabled him to conquer his own
worst enemy—alcohol. , •
"Alcohol .almost had me licked,
but with the aid d1; AIcoholics
. Anonymous I came back," he
recalled many times.
After service in Naval Intel-
i ,,{ ligence during World War I,
Snedigar moved to Miami Beach -
t ;
where his first • _
•
Snedigar Jr., was born Dec. 16,
t ! 1920. The son is often described
as the first white child born at
4 the Beach.
The Snedigar home then as now
•
I was at 1912 Collins-ave. - .
• Snedigar entered politics in 1922
and was elected to the first of
four terms as the city's chief exec-
` utive. Mayors at that time were
elected by direct vote, rather than
the present system of appointing!
the top man at each election.
He was subsequently re-elected
in 1924, 1928 and 1936 for two
year terms.' In 1947, he was
' elected to his first and only term
as a councilman, leaving that
post when elected to the county
commission in 1948.
Snedigar's successor to the com-
mission will be named by Gov.
Fuller Warren to serve until Jan.
1, 1953. A number of names have
been mentioned for the post, moat'
'prominent of which is that of,
Grant Stockdale, former Dadei
county legislator.
ptockdale, who has already an-
Ino inced his candidacy in the 1952
• ,race, was defeated for the post in
1948 by Preston B. Bird. Other
' ames mentioned are: Harold
Turk, present councilman and for-
mer mayor of Miami.Beach; D. Lee
Powell, present mayor of Miami
'Beach, and Col. Joseph Stehlin, na-
'tional commander of the Ariny
an 4 Navy union.
Snedigar recalled that- it was
,during the "hail fellow well met
,days of his tettm as mayor that'.
he fell into the grip of alcohol.
"All the notables that came
down here wanted two things—
Turn Pa' rA, Col. 5
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L.F. Snedigar
De . • 4t 61 1
Continue, tom Page 1, i
they wan,-. :nd to meet
the mayor." - '
Snedikar had abandone2i his law
practice and gone into real efitate
when in 1943 he made the decision,
that changed his 11Th. In that year,
he told his friends, he heard of
Alcoholics Anonymous and joined.
"And I haven't taken a,drink
since. I'd taken most of the known
'cures' and many you've nevet
heard about. I've had myself
locked up in a sanitarium.I'd gone
to the best psychologists. AA
, taught me the truth that I'm just
one of those fellows who can't
take a drink."
In 1944,he offered for election
from the newly created fifth
county commission d i s t r i c t
formed out of the Beach terri-
tory.
ern.tory. He was beaten by Val
Cleary, himself.a former Beach
mayor. `
In February, 1947, he resumed
his law practice, was admitted to
practice before the United States
;. Supreme Court. Until his death
he was both an attorney and a
real estate broker, maintaining of-
fices i at 420 Lincoln rd.
a�hti+;June, 1947, he was elected
'city councilman. He held that
office when in 1948 he ran against,
and defeated,-his old f r i e n d
Cleary.As county commissioner he
' was chairman of the waste corn-
mittee and,also headed mosquito •
control.
Snedigar liked to kid that his
only legislative acts had been to
battle the mosquito and destruc-
tion
estruction of birds by cats. He•spon-
sored and passed a Bach ordi-
nance requiring all cats be belled;
an ordinance that !still stands.
Besides his son, Louis Jr., he is
also survived by his wife, the for-
mer Edna Morris whom he mar-
ried in 1916 at DeLand, and son
James.