Florida Governor. He was born in Blountstown, a rural town in the panhandle of Florida, to Charles and Grace (Fuller) Warren, and he was one of seven children. Educated locally in public schools, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Florida, and while a senior, he was elected to represent Calhoun County in the State House of Representatives in 1927. He earned a Law Degree in 1930 from Cumberland University in Tennessee. Returning to Jacksonville after law school, Fuller Warren was elected to the Jacksonville City Council in 1931 and served until 1937. He returned to the State House of Representatives in 1939 representing Duval County. He ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1940. Warren was a Navy gunnery officer in World War II and crossed the Atlantic twenty times. In 1948, Fuller Warren was elected the 30th Governor of the Sate of Florida, and served until 1953. To preserve this historical event, a polished-brass time capsule, which contained two acetate phonograph records documenting the inaugural ceremonies of Governor Fuller Warren, was sealed on January 4, 1949. Fifty years later, the time capsule was opened and the recordings played at the Museum of Florida History. Fuller, like every other state governor, faced challenges and accomplishments: cattle ranchers were forbidden to allow their stock to wander freely on Florida's highways, which caused numerous auto accidents; preliminary plans for the Florida Turnpike were completed; a crackdown on illegal gambling was attempted; an advanced quality-control for Florida citrus fruit was started; a flood control system was started; promotion of the forest industry was done with hundreds of trees planted for limber; many light manufacturing adventures were started to increase jobs; tourist promotion was enhanced to the point of having 5,000,000 vacationers coming to the state each year. During the four years in the Governor's Mansion, the First Family, which included Warren's omnipresent maiden sister Alma, noted the increasing deterioration of the living conditions in the turn-of-the-century mansion. In 1949, Warren labeled the mansion "The State Shack", but it was not until the end of his term in 1953 that legislature appropriated $250,000 to build a new mansion. He was involved in two major controversies while in office. The first involved a libel lawsuit, which was filed against Collier's magazine and settled out of court. The second was a conflict with Tennessee U.S. Senator Kefauver's investigation into organized crime, the part that Florida played and the proposed impeachment of the governor. As many other Southern governors, Warren faced the problem of racial unrest. It was during his term in office that the first civil rights leader was assassinated in the United States, and that happened in the small town of Mims, Florida. Four young black men had been accused of raping a 17-year-old married woman. The white community had become a mob on the edge of lynching these men without trial. Harry T. Moore, an outspoken black man, who had helped with the registration of more than 100,000 black voters for the Democratic Party, wrote his governor asking him not to "White Wash" this situation, and provide these men with a fair trial. Within three weeks, on Christmas Day 1951, Harry Moore's home was bombed. His brother-in-law Master Sgt. George Simms, a Korean Veteran, and a few other family members were in the house but all escaped injury. Moore died on the way to the hospital and his wife died about a week of 3-degree burns and other injuries. This mob continued to terrorize the black neighborhood. Thousands upon thousands of letters and telegrams poured into the governor's mansion in Tallahassee as well as to U.S. President Harry Truman in Washington D.C. After a phone call from the White House, Warren sent the Florida National Guard to the community and within 3 days the violence was resolved. The protests over the Moores' deaths rocked the nation, with dozens of rallies and memorial meetings around the country. As with many other racial crimes in this era, there were dead-end investigations and no arrests, even with the involvement of the FBI. This was partially because the Moores' had the misfortune of dying at a time when the Ku Klux Klan membership roster included sheriffs, lawyers, doctors, wealthy businessmen and city councilmen -- and even, at one time, a Florida governor, Fuller Warren. Becoming a "dry state" was another hot subject before and during Warren's term. Warren was of the Baptist faith and did not drink or smoke, yet did not support the effort of make Florida alcohol free. As for the more personal side of his life, Warren married and divorced three women: Sallie Mae Stegall, 1929-1937; Pat Pacetti, 1939-1942; and Florida's First Lady Barbara Manning, 1949-1959. Miss Manning, 24 year-old Californian, and Warren were married 6 months after he was elected governor. Warren had no children. He belonged to the American Legion and Veteran of Foreign Wars, Elks, Florida Bar, and Tau Chapter of Theta Chi Fraternity Theta Chi Fraternity. In 1953 at the end of his term, Governor Fuller Warren was photographed with Governor-elect Dan McCarty as they rode in a new Cadillac convertible to McCarty's inaugural ceremonies. Warren then left Tallahassee to practice law in Miami. He later made unsuccessful bid to be governor in 1956. He wrote three books, including How to Win in Politics. Named in his honor, the Fuller Warren Bridge in Jacksonville crosses the St. Johns River at the merge of Interstate-10 and Interstate-95.