Lake leader’s mother was dedicated nurse
In 1945, Josie M. Pelt Cadwell packed a suitcase with the few clothes she owned, put on her best dress and boarded a train in Holopaw headed for NewOrleans.
She had just graduated from St. Cloud High School and had dreams of becoming a nurse. It was not only an ambitious move for the young woman, but also a bold one. In the rural South at that time, women were not expected to pursue professional careers. AndCadwellwas the oldest of 10 children in a poor family.
“It was huge for her to go,” daughter Beth Getchell said. “And I’m not sure how she managed it. I know my grandparents were not in any shape to send her. But she was determined.”
Josie Cadwell, a registered nurse in Lake County for nearly five decades and the mother of longtime Lake County Commissioner Welton Cadwell, died Tuesday of congestive heart failure. She was 85.
“She said you have to be very compassionate to be a nurse — and she was compassionate — but you also had to be a special type of person to always be dealing with doctors,” Welton Cadwell said.
Cadwell, who was first elected in 1992, said his mother occasionally attended County Commission meetings to watch her son. But as her health declined in recent years, she watched the meetings broadcast live on the county’s website.
“After the meetings she would criticize me, telling me I should have said this or I shouldn’t have said that,” said Cadwell, recalling his mother’s fiery personality. “But shewas the boss. Mydadwas a big, burly guy. But she would tear you up in a minute.”
Josie Cadwell was born in Perry and grew up in Holopaw, where her father worked at a sawmill. As the oldest child, Cadwell helped raise her siblings. It was then that Cadwell developed her skills for nursing, family members said.
After graduating with honors from nursing school, Cadwell moved to Umatilla, where for 23 years she worked for the children’s hospital established by the Elks. The medical facility, known as the Harry-Anna Crippled Children’s Hospital, was renamed in 1985 as Florida Elks Children’s Hospital.
While she was working at the hospital she met her future husband, W. Gwinn Cadwell, a supermarket owner who served as Umatilla’s city clerk for 11 years. He died in 1987.
Josie Cadwell later worked at Lake Eustis Care Center for nearly two decades before retiring as director of nursing in 1988.
When her son, Welton, first ran for the commission’s District 5 seat, she stood on street corners in 90-degree heat holding campaign signs and waving to passing motorists. “Mothers will do anything for their sons,” she told an Orlando Sentinel reporter.
Welton Cadwell said his mother loved to fish, eat fish and watch the Florida Gators football team.
Her daughter Catherine Cadwell Aaronson, 51, died in 2003.
Josie Cadwell was past matron of the Order of the Eastern Star and a member of the Mather School of Nursing Alumni Association. Cadwell also was a member of First Baptist Church of Umatilla and volunteered at the Agnes May Crisis Center.
She also is survived by two brothers, Earl Pelt and James Pelt; one sister, Fran Lavender; six grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
Beyers Funeral Home, Umatilla, is handling arrangements.