| Rainey Cawthon |
Full Name: Rainey Blackwell Cawthon
Born: October 30, 1907, Gainesville, Fla.
Died: April 11, 1991, Tallahassee, Fla.
Legacy Bricks: Legacy Walk Map Link
1987 Moore-Stone Award HOF - Loc 66
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| FSU Career |
| Moore-Stone Award | |
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| Member of the FSU Hall of Fame |
| Elected into the FSU Hall of Fame in 1987 |
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The Florida State University Athletic Department presents the Moore-Stone Award for Outstanding Service to Florida State Athletics to Rainey Cawthon. A Tallahassean, Cawthon was a football star at
the University of Florida and captain of the 1929 Gators. When Florida State University was created, Cawthon, a prominent Tallahassee businessman, led the drive for construction of Doak Campbell
Stadium. That important step forward in the FSU program was due in large part to his efforts. In the years following, Rainey Cawthon has continued to be a vital supporter of Florida State
athletics. Obituary for Rainey Blackwell Cawthon From the Tallahassee Democrat, April 12, 1991, page B1. Tallahassee loses a longtime leader. By Dorothy Clifford, Democrat staff writer Rainey Cawthon, retired Tallahassee businessman and civic leader, died Thursday evening at his home on High Road. He was 83. "He was one of the best citizens this town has ever had," said long-time friend Ryals Lee, a Tallahassee businessman. Mr. Cawthon was an Eagle Scout, a star football player at Leon High School and at the University of Florida, a state representative, high-school principal, high school and college coach, World War II Army officer, former president of the Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce and political leader. Mr. Cawthon also was honored by the Florida State University Hall of Fame. He was an institution at funerals and weddings in Tallahassee for more than five decades. "He was one of the most thoughtful and considerate people I ever knew," Lee said. When Mr. Cawthon retired in 1979, he owned six companies, including Rainey Cawthon Service Station and Rainey Cawthon TV and Radio Sales and Repair Co. that still bear his name. Born in Gainesville in 1907, he moved to Tallahassee in 1922 when his father, W.S. Cawthon, became the state superintendent of education. Mr. Cawthon played quarterback at Leon High School and was the first member of the Leon High School Football Hall of Fame. He later played fullback for the Florida Gators and was captain of the 1929 team. His wife, Sarah Lovell Payne Cawthon of Dickson, Tenn., who was a driving force in Tallahassee's earliest preservation efforts, died in 1977. She taught the football hero English at the University of Florida, and the two later married. As a youth, he was a prize-winning cyclist and a Western Union delivery boy. He worked summers as a mechanic at Tallahassee Motors, and on construction jobs, including the 1923 addition to the Capitol and on the library for Florida State College for Women, now Florida State University. He spent two summers digging the canals designed to drain the Florida Everglades. Mr. Cawthon's first coaching job was with Lee High School in Jacksonville, where he also was acting principal. After three years, he returned to Gainesville to coach the university's freshman team. He then moved back to Tallahassee to begin his business career. Mr. Cawthon opened his first service station with the late Fred Pierson, next to the Federal Building at Monroe Street and Park Avenue. Mr. Cawthon was a state representative in 1943 when he resigned to enter the military as a first lieutenant in the Army Air Corps. He served in India and Burma during World War II, and was discharged from active duty as a major. In 1959, the late Gov. LeRoy Collins appointed him liaison officer between the National Guard and the Army Reserve, with the rank of brigadier general. He was a member of the Tallahassee Kiwanis Club, a 32nd degree Mason and a member of St. John's Episcopal Church. Mr. Cawthon is survived by his two daughters, Appellate Judge Anne Cawthon Booth and Sarah Cawthon Shaw, both of Tallahassee; a granddaughter, Sally Shaw Hyde, Tallahassee; three grandsons, Rainey Cawthon Booth of Gulf Breeze and John Edgar Booth and Frank Sampson Shaw III, both of Tallahassee; two brothers, retired Circuit Judge Victor M. Cawthon of Tallahassee and Joseph A. Cawthon of Daytona Beach; one sister, Margarita Bogan of Gulf Breeze; four great-grandchildren and two sons-in-law, Frank Shaw Jr. and Edgar Booth, both of Tallahassee. Services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Episcopal Cemetery at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Call Street. The family requests that donations be made to St. John's Episcopal Church. |
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