Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies

Floyd Dunn, ex-leader of NAACP, dies at 106

By CRAIG BASSE

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 3, 2001

ST. PETERSBURG -- Floyd A. Dunn, a retired insurance agent and former president of the local branch of the NAACP, has died at 106.

Mr. Dunn, who led the local civil rights organization for three consecutive terms in the 1950s, died Thursday (Feb. 1, 2001) at St. Anthony's Hospital.

He came here in 1920 from his native Augusta, Ga., and worked for an engineering company that paved many St. Petersburg streets. He later went to work for Central Life Insurance Co. and rose to become a manager.

In a 1994 interview with the Weekly Challenger, Mr. Dunn recalled his early years in the city.

He remembered the old Municipal Pier, which opened in 1926, and that African-Americans were excluded from it.

"We were not recognized as citizens as everyone else," he said.

Mr. Dunn said in the interview that he took no medicine and saw no doctors, practices that he said played a role in his long life and generally good health.

"The Lord has been extraordinarily good to me," he said. "I don't need a doctor, and as for being lonely, that's peculiar."

Over the years, Mr. Dunn served as president of the Florida State Progressive Voters League and as chairman of the divisional committee of the Pinellas Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He led the management committee of the Melrose Park Branch of the YMCA.

In 1963, Mr. Dunn was cited for three decades of service to the West Coast Baptist Association, which includes churches in St. Petersburg.

At First Baptist Institutional Church, Mr. Dunn sang in the choir and as a soloist, accompanied by his wife, Edna, who was organist there for many years. She died in 1987 at 88.

Survivors include a cousin, Minnie Paulk, St. Petersburg; a caregiver, Emanuel Stewart; and extended family members Gladys Hardy, Ethelyn Scott, Sharon Stewart and Paul Stewart.

Friends may call at 10 a.m. Tuesday at First Baptist Institutional Church, 3144 Third Ave. S. A funeral will begin at 11 a.m. Burial will be at Royal Palm Cemetery South. McRae Funeral Home is in charge.

- Information from Times files was used in this obituary.