Memories from long ago

Posted on January 10, 2014

By SUSAN H. LINCOLN / Managing Editor
It was a pleasant Sunday morning when Charlie Duke came to enjoy a hearty breakfast and say “goodbye” to his host family in Pine Ridge subdivision.

Duke had been among the dignitaries for the 1967 Florida Forest Festival, with Patsy and Jake Bassett as his hosts and escorts for all events.

“He was in his flight suit, ready to drive his rental car back to Tallahassee and then fly himself back to Houston where he was based,” Bassett said.
Before he left, Bassett gathered up his two sons, Jim and Joe, and their neighborhood friend, Don Grant, for a picture in the backyard.

PHOTO: Charlie Duke was in a training program for astronauts at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, when he visited the 1967 Florida Forest Festival as a dignitary. He is pictured with (left to right) Don Grant, Joe Bassett and Jim Bassett.

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