Bradenton High School graduate, 1931
Bradenton, FL
In his final weeks of life, Lamar Graham received a standing ovation as the oldest living graduate of Manatee High School at its Centennial Celebration, cruised the Manatee Civic Center in his wheelchair for the Ham Fest (Amateur Radio Convention) and chatted on his i-Phone in the middle of his 102nd birthday party. Even though he next had to tackle pneumonia, he made it through to see his 103rd Christmas and New Year's holidays.
That's the kind of genetics he inherited as a Floridano, a member of Florida's founding Sanchez family and a relative of the Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon. He learned about his ancestry when he and his late wife Edith began their retirement trek of searching for lost relatives and consequently wrote the book Double Cousins in 1987.
An active Manatee County volunteer with the Red Cross during hurricanes with the Manatee Amateur Radio Club, at the time of his death Graham could also claim "longest term member" status at the Kirby Steward American Legion post and Bradenton's First United Methodist Church , which he joined in 1927. He completed school at both Ballard Elementary and Manatee High School when the original buildings were new, and even began grade school here at what is now the Manatee County School Board building on Manatee Avenue.
He caddied for department store founder Robert Beall Sr. on the old Bradenton Golf Course (site of McKechnie Field) and witnessed Armistice Day (end of WWI) as a celebration erupted near the downtown courthouse. His first radio was a hand-built crystal one yet he ended his working life sending out transmissions for WEDU-TV, Channel 3, in Riverview.
Bradenton High School graduate, 1931
Bradenton, FL
In his final weeks of life, Lamar Graham received a standing ovation as the oldest living graduate of Manatee High School at its Centennial Celebration, cruised the Manatee Civic Center in his wheelchair for the Ham Fest (Amateur Radio Convention) and chatted on his i-Phone in the middle of his 102nd birthday party. Even though he next had to tackle pneumonia, he made it through to see his 103rd Christmas and New Year's holidays.
That's the kind of genetics he inherited as a Floridano, a member of Florida's founding Sanchez family and a relative of the Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon. He learned about his ancestry when he and his late wife Edith began their retirement trek of searching for lost relatives and consequently wrote the book Double Cousins in 1987.
An active Manatee County volunteer with the Red Cross during hurricanes with the Manatee Amateur Radio Club, at the time of his death Graham could also claim "longest term member" status at the Kirby Steward American Legion post and Bradenton's First United Methodist Church , which he joined in 1927. He completed school at both Ballard Elementary and Manatee High School when the original buildings were new, and even began grade school here at what is now the Manatee County School Board building on Manatee Avenue.
He caddied for department store founder Robert Beall Sr. on the old Bradenton Golf Course (site of McKechnie Field) and witnessed Armistice Day (end of WWI) as a celebration erupted near the downtown courthouse. His first radio was a hand-built crystal one yet he ended his working life sending out transmissions for WEDU-TV, Channel 3, in Riverview.
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