Flagler County Republican Club

The Flagler County Republican Club, FCRC, began its climb towards fifty years of age in the mid-1970s with the advent of Palm Coast and its promise of warm weather. There were not many, if any, Republicans here before then, as Flagler County, like much of Florida, was populated by Democrats and Dixiecrats – that’s a history lesson in itself.
In 1976 Vern(on) and Doris Smith came here and became part of us by joining everything we had to offer. Vern became friends with Shelton Barber, who was Clerk of Courts, and Billy Wadsworth, Circuit Judge and my dad. I’m certain he told me he held the door to the court room – he was possibly a bailiff. He tried to convince both of those men, I’m told, to join his Republican party. Years later Vern and Doris walked Palm Coast with me as I campaigned to become Shelton’s second successor.
Along with the Smiths, there were many others who caused this organization to become strong and viable: Al and Vivian Jones; Jim and Elle Pillon; Art and Elinor Goepel; Alison Rimer; the inimitable Bill Grady; Nancy Prizer; Alan and Margaret Walton; Pat Sloan-Jones; Wes Priest; Richard Russell and so many more whose faces and support I cannot forget. Among them is Joan Johnson, who passed the Republican Club gavel to me in 2007 for what was to be a one-year term. That became five, and now here I am again. Oh, my! In the interim of then and now, we were aptly served by Wes Priest and Danielle Anderson.
In between the Smiths’ arrival and now, The Flagler County Republican Executive Committee, FCREC, was formed and chartered by the Republican Party of Florida, RPOF, as was the Flagler County Republican Club.
I am told the FCRC, soon to celebrate its fiftieth birthday, is the oldest continually existing Republican body in Flagler County! I hope you agree that its future looks bright.
GW
October 2021