Buy Books By Dorothy K. Fletcher

Shelter from the Storm

By Dorothy K. Fletcher

Elementary school teacher Sarah Palmer had a secret, one that even she found hard to face. Only after her teacher friends witnessed one of her debilitating panic attacks did she ever consider confronting it. Shelter from the Storm is her journey toward salvation and renewal. It is a sensitive story about how two young girls—one black, one white—try to overcome the status quo in a time when Jim Crow Laws prevailed. It is also a story that considers how two people can live through the same event and experience very different outcomes; that some become stronger while others are swept away like cottages in a hurricane.

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HOJO Girl

By Dorothy K. Fletcher

Now Available at Amazon

In the summer of 1968, the Vietnam war raged, the civil rights movement spread across the land, and the sexual revolution began to impact the lives of Americans. Days after her graduation from high school, Sadie Wainwright joint he rands of the Howard Jonson Restaurant Empire by becoming a HOJO Girl at the Golfair Howard Johnson in Jacksonville, Florida. Behind the gleaming counters of this popular eating establishment, Sadie not only worked for college money but, she also grew up learning life lessons as a waitress, a daughter, a sister, and a friend.

HOJO girl is Sadie's insightful journey of into womanhood back in the turbulent year of 1968, but even with all the troubles of that time, life was often made bearable by the dish of Howard Johnson Icecream served by a JOJO girl on the road to somewhere else.

Jacksonville on Wheels,
A car culture retrospective
By Dorothy K. Fletcher

Now Available at Amazon

Jacksonville has long been a mecca for car enthusiasts and collectors, due in part to the city's unique automotive history. Bystanders gazed in wonder as John Einig drove Florida's very first steam-powered horseless carriage through the streets in 1889. Fred Gilbert opened the first automobile dealership in 1903, just before the city's first automobile parade, and people were soon clamoring to buy cars of their own. Claude Nolan, whose local dealership has been in business for well over a century, gained fame for racing his Cadillac against an airplane at the Jacksonville Fairgrounds. NASCAR held races at the Jacksonville Speedway in the '50s and '60s. Author Dorothy K. Fletcher explores the rich history and memories of car culture in the River City.

Historic Jacksonville Theatre Palaces,
Drive-ins and Movie Houses
By Dorothy K. Fletcher

Available at Amazon

Jacksonville’s theatre and performance history is rich with flair and drama. The theatres, drive-ins and movie houses that brought entertainment to its citizens have their own exciting stories. Some have passed into memory. The Dixie Theatre, originally part of Dixieland Park, began to fade in 1909. The Palace Theatre, home to vaudeville acts, was torn down in the 50s. The Alhambra has been everyone’s favorite dinner theatre since 1967s debut of Come Blow Your Horn. Local author Dorothy K. Fletcher revives the history of Jacksonville’s theatres. Lights, camera, action!

Lost Restaurants of Jacksonville

The city of Jacksonville has long enjoyed a wondrous array of restaurants with fine cuisine and unique atmospheres. Some of the greatest of those now exist only in memory. Le Chateau, with its elegant patio and seascapes, was a beacon of fine dining. The Rainbow Room at the George Washington Hotel offered a crowded dance floor to its dinner experience. The Green Derby was the pit of passion for fans of Florida and Georgia during one of the fiercest rivalries in college football. Join author Dorothy K. Fletcher as she recalls the history of the city’s lost restaurants and reflects on a more gracious time in Jacksonville

Growing Up Jacksoville

There was no finer place to be a kid than Jacksonville.

Jacksonville during the ‘50s and ‘60s was a wonderful and energetic place for the children who called it home. The northeast corner of the Sunshine State was the perfect and picturesque backdrop for some of America’s timeless traditions. Mothers belonged to garden clubs, and fathers smoked pipes cigars after supper, while the children frolicked on warm beaches and fed peanuts to Miss Chic, the first elephant at the Jacksonville Zoo. Join Dorothy Fletcher, former columnist for the Florida Times-Union, as she recounts the memories and adventures of the people who grew up Jacksonville.

Remembering Jacksonville

As longtime residents and newcomers alike can agree, Jacksonville holds within its city limits wonderful places to grow, play and contemplate the beauty of north Florida. This entertaining collection of Dorothy Fletcher's "By the Wayside" columns will help you remember what it was like to see the world and Jacksonville with a sense of wonder and enthusiasm. From Marineland to the Soul Searchers to Peterson's 5 & 10, Remembering Jacksonville captures this coastal community's glory days, including fond recollections from local citizens who responded to the original columns.

The Cruelest Months

The hopes of any society are etched in the faces of students in classes all across America. Donna Webster, a newly graduated, white English teacher, could see these hopes as she looked out at her classroom at Paul Lawrence Dunbar Senior High School, a predominantly black inner city high school in Jacksonville, Florida. From Yasminas poetic letters about unspeakable tragedy to Thomas wasted potential to Rochelles feisty presence--Donna came to realize, as all teachers do, that education is as much about learning as it is about teaching. All of her first year lessons, those taught and those learned, are chronicled in The Cruelest Lessons, and Donnas Websters baptism into the cruel world of teaching is a testament to the power that one individual has in shaping this world.