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By CRAIG BASSE
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 10, 2001
ST. PETERSBURG -- Leroy "Jaybird" Prothro, an influential Boy Scout leader and longtime community activist, has died at 74.
Mr. Prothro, who led a drug treatment program, died Thursday (Feb. 8, 2001) at Bayfront Medical Center after a brief illness.
Drafted by ministerial leaders at Bethel Community Baptist Church in the 1940s, Mr. Prothro took all-black Troop 130 under his wing and "produced a long list of Eagles," said the Rev. Wayne Thompson, who joined the troop at age 10.
His influence in the black community was widespread, said Thompson, pastor of First Baptist Institutional Church, with some of Mr. Prothro's scouts going on to become doctors, lawyers, ministers and political figures.
James Powell, a lawyer who is vice president of the West Florida Council of the Boy Scouts of America, called Mr. Prothro "a leader of boys."
"What a wonderful man he was," Powell said.
His community activism included a successful effort to win a grant for one of the early drug-counseling programs in a building at 19th Avenue S and 30th Street, Thompson recalled.
Thomas "Jet" Jackson, the city's special events coordinator, said Mr. Prothro was president of the fledgling Community Service and Development program in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
"It was a small group of people, working with Operation PAR," Jackson said. "It was one of the first drug agencies. Drugs were coming onto the scene, tearing folks apart."
Although the agency received a charter, its small size made it powerless against larger organizations, Jackson said.
In recent months, Mr. Prothro led efforts for the Perkins Neighborhood Association, which is one of the Challenge Area neighborhoods being improved by the city.
At Bethel Community Baptist Church, he taught Sunday school for more than three decades and was chief usher of the usher board.
Born in Anthony, near Ocala, Mr. Prothro came here as a teenager. For 39 years he worked for Bill Jackson Inc., a sports equipment store, retiring in 1990 as a supervisor of sales.
Survivors include his wife of 18 years, Alice; six daughters, Gwendolyn Darity, Tangla McCaskill and Tameka Hubbard, all of St. Petersburg, Rhonda Prothro, Tampa, and Deidra Favors and Dawn Kearse, both of Atlanta; and five sons, Jacoby Simmons, Stone Mountain, Ga., Alphonso McCaskill, Orlando, and James "Pete" McCaskill, Tim McFadden and Ricky Dixon, all of St. Petersburg; three brothers, Herman, Jacksonville, Rogers, New York City, and Morris Holmes, St. Petersburg; 24 grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren; and four great-great-grandchildren.
Friends may call from 3 to 5 p.m. Friday at Smith Funeral Home, 1534 18th Ave. S, and from 6 to 8 p.m. at Bethel Community Baptist Church, 1045 16th St. S. A funeral will be at 11 a.m. Feb. 17 at the church.
- Information from Times files was used in this obituary.