Page 4 August 3, 2011
The Newscaster/Nature Coast News
Dessie Smith Prescott Honored
Remembering the past
at Wildlife Park Heritage Days
Every year the Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park holds a Ho-
mosassa Heritage Days. This year the event centered on Dessie Smith Prescott who would
have been 105 August 4. A display of pictures, momentos and things from her life were the
setting for the program along with Homosassa history. A memorial to Prescott in that dis-
play stated “Prescott was one of the greatest pioneers of the 20th century.
Orphaned at age 12, Prescott not only survived but flourished. Prescott s love of
the outdoors is legendary. At age 19 she built her own log cabin. She built a hunting and
fishing lodge on the Withlacoochee River (in Inglis) that she operated for several decades.
Prescott was the first licensed female pilot in Florida and the first female hunting and fishing
guide in Florida. She served in the military during WW II. Prescott’s independence and out-
door skills provided inspiration for Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ novels The Yearling, South
Moon Rising and Cross Creek.
Prescott was inducted into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame in 1999. (Nominated
by then District 43 Florida State Representative Nancy Argenziano.) Quote from Prescott's
18 year caregiver Candace Boothe. "Dessie always wondered what was around the next
bend in the river. On April 19, 2002 she took her final trip and now she knows."
Murder/Suicide - Continued from page 1
60, and his female victim, Leona Field, 63, lived together at the residence. Ms Field suffered
two gunshot wounds to the head and neck. The location of Davidson’s self-inflicted gunshot
This is a gathering of Citrus County Cenfederate Veterans from sometime between
wound was not specified. Detectives investigating the incident recovered a handgun in the
1901 and 1909. Location the picture was taken from is unknown. If more info is known please
couple’s front yard, where Davidson had turned the gun on himself.
contact The Newscaster. (news@thenewscaster.com)
Friends of the couple were visiting at the time the shootings occurred, according
Back row L-R; Mrs. George Dame of Inverness, W. H. H. Witten of Inverness, Rever-
to the sheriff’s office. The friend who attempted to intervene in the shootings, 66 year-old
end Eugene Higgins of Floral City, J. C. Priest of Stage Pond, Richard B. Waller of Istachatta,
Steven Snowman of Inverness, received non-life-threatening injuries from a non-specified
George W. Butler the Chronicle editor in Inverness, Charles Peterson of Floral City, Obediah E.
weapon, although CCSO Public Information Officer Gail Tierney stated the injuries were
Edwards, Red Level and J. J. Brown.
not inflicted by gunshot. Mr. Snowman was airlifted to Shands Hospital in Gainesville for
Center row L-R: Mrs. Louis Thompson, E. Y. SMith of Micanopy, Mercy of Floral City,
treatment of a head wound as a precautionary measure. He is expected to make a complete
Jacob T. Landrum of Stage Pond, Euguene Zimmerman of Floral CIty, Chambers Graham of
recovery.
Inverness and Alfred Tompkins of Inverness.
Ms. Field worked for the Citrus County Property Appraisers Office as a land valu-
Bottom row L-R: Mrs. George J. Boswell and George Priest. From Florida State Archives.
ation specialist.
Hernando woman killed at CR 484/SR 200 crash
Mr. Davidson had also worked at the appraiser’s office, but lost his job in 2009 due
to changes made after the election.
A crash in Marion County at 1:45 p.m., July 20, at the intersection of C.R. 484 and
Coastal
S.R. 200, resulted in the death of a Hernando woman. According to the Florida Highway
Hair Port
Patrol, Danielle Leigh Fessenden, 26, of Crystal River, was driving a 2001 Ford Excursion,
traveling west in the left travel lane of C.R. 484, stopped at the intersection of S.R. 200.
The report stated that Mary Ann Sciallo, 73, of Hernando, was driving a 2002 Saturn SL2,
Carting
Big John’s Family Salon
traveling north on S.R. 200 in the left travel lane, approaching the intersection with C.R.
484, when Fessenden “attempted to cross the intersection with disregard for the red light,”
Hwy. 40 East, Inglis
according to the crash report. The right front of Sciallo’s Saturn collided with the left front
10-20-30 yd.
of Fessenden’s Ford.
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