Elder Willie Mayes Talks About Starting a Business and His Sister Rosa Lee Thomas Discusses The Public Health Impact of a Landfill Newtown Alive

The late Elder Willie Mayes was
proud of the family church that began in his parent’s home with six members. He
began pastoring New Zion Primitive Baptist Church in 1984 and operated a cement
finishing business for 45 years.
 The company is among the
oldest Black owned enterprises in Sarasota. At age 14, he stopped attending
school to help his family make ends meet financially. Mayes earned meager wages
doing farm work in Fruitville near where the family lived. Children in the
settlement of approximately 50 residents attended school in a little church. The
people walked a quarter of a mile to pump water for daily use. In 1944, the
family moved to Newtown where Mango Avenue is situated between Highway 301 and
the railroad tracks near the city dump. “The smoke bothered us for years. We
stayed in the house most of the time to escape that smoke.,” Mayes said. His
sister Rosa Lee Thomas believes their neighbors on Mango died as a result of
the fumes. She keeps a record of their names as a memorial. An unforgettable
moment in Thomas’ life was being chosen the 10th grade attendant of Miss Booker
High School with another attendant Willie Mae (Blake) Sheffield.