Author wrote about Apopka’s people, history
Near Miami, police officer William Gladden Jr. became Perrine Slim.
Lanky since his Apopka upbringing, the nickname “Slim” was a souvenir from youth. A nod to the area he worked in South Florida, Perrine was slapped to the front of his CB radio name. On paper, the name stuck. Beneath that pen name, Gladden in 2006 began composing a weekly column for The Apopka Chief, writing about his town’s history and the people who made it home.
On March 11, his decades of listening, noting and sharing the area’s history with locals culminated with the signing of his just-published book, “The Pennings of Perrine Slim: Stories of Northwest Orange County Florida.” Longtime friend Francina Boykin described a “jubilation” to the air at the Apopka Historical Society, an enthusiasm that built as readers inquired about his inspiration.
William “Bill” Gladden Jr. died April 2 of a heart attack. He was 83.
The book, and his articles that comprise it, pay homage to a history buff’s unending entreaty to pay forward the knowledge amassed since he moved to the area, before he was 6 years old.
Dr. Phyllis M. Olmstead, who published the book and is listed as editor and photographer, expects more to result from what Boykin estimates as more than 700 articles.
“That was his goal and dream,” said Boykin. “For young people to embrace their history.”
Gladden might have said, “If you know where you come from, you don’t have to know where you’re going,” according to Boykin.
“[His] father and uncle were business owners in south Apopka, and they helped bring that neighborhood up,” said Gladden’s son, Michael Gladden III of Orlando.
Their influence was such that a road in town bears the name of Slim Gladden’s uncle.
Adjacent to the funeral home handling his arrangements, Michael Gladden Boulevard stretches between South Hawthorne Avenue and South Park Avenue. The late funeral director, Marvin Zanders, was a high-school friend of Gladden’s. After Gladden went to a New York school to become an embalmer, the two became colleagues.
Eventually, Gladden worked as a grove manager in Central Florida. Gladden had attended Morehouse College in Georgia, then served in the Navy during the Korean War, above the 38th parallel.
Family was critical, and in his son, he deposited the values of honesty and education.
In his spare time, Gladden “was a big baseball fanatic,” read the Bible and Morehouse magazine, and watched movies about war or cowboys.
Boykin watched “Jeopardy” with Gladden, a man who could, when prompted with a name, rattle off “all the details of that individual.”
Michael Gladden III said his father, “jovial” and “matter-of-fact” in person, was also matter-of-fact on paper. An entire discussion might evolve over word usage.
When he had visitors, he might preface their departure with, “by the way” or “one more thing,” to continue the conversation, Boykin said.
“All the while, his waking hours were typing and talking,” Boykin said.
In addition to his son, William Gladden Jr. is survived by sisters Carolyn McBain and Jean Marie Leslie of New York; six grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
Marvin Zanders Funeral Home, of Apopka, is handling arrangements.