Senate votes to put Bethune statue in Confederate’s place

TALLAHASSEE — A sculpture of civil-rights leader and educator Mary McLeod Bethune could soon replace the state’s statue of a Confederate general in the U.S. Capitol.

The Florida Senate voted unanimously Wednesday to make the switch. If approved by the House and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott, Florida would join other governments across the state and nation that have decided to remove or move Confederate memorials.

“Dr. Bethune’s life and values represent the best of Florida,” said Sen. Perry Thurston, D-Fort Lauderdale, who sponsored the bill. “Voting for this legislation underscores that Floridians recognize our rich history and celebrate our diversity.”

Senators voted 37-0 on SB 472 to take down a statue of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith and put Bethune in its place in the National Statuary Hall, where each state has two statues to represent it. Florida’s other statue is of John Gorrie, a pioneering inventor of air conditioning.

Bethune’s likeness would become the hall’s first statue honoring an African-American woman.

boasting that Flea World once had more than 3 million visitors a year. It closed the following month.

Levy, of Maitland, died Monday of respiratory complications. He was 88.

“He’s somebody whose life was filled with enthusiasm,” said Gary Cain, a close friend and the chief executive officer of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida, which Levy supported financially by contributing thousands of dollars that enabled the organization to expand its facilities. “He had great vitality. He enjoyed people.”

Levy also owned United Trophy Manufacturing on Orange Avenue and Concord Street in downtown Orlando. As his trophy and flea market businesses grew, Levy became active in charities and philanthropy by donating heavily to various organizations, including the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida. Today, the group’s downtown service center at Magnolia Avenue and Colonial Drive bears the name of Syd and Marianne Levy. Levy’s contributions also enabled the organization to renovate its kitchen at its Walt Disney World Clubhouse.

“He was a big believer in the American dream,” Cain said. “He knew that if we helped children — especially those that come from tough circumstances — that they can become responsible citizens going forward.”

Syd Levy sponsored the Red Tails Monument honoring the Tuskegee Airmen at the Orlando Science Center. He also contributed to Kids House of Seminole County, a nonprofit organization dedicated toward preventing child abuse and aiding child-abuse victims.

Born and raised in Canada, Levy owned a trophy business and drive-in theater that also served on occasion as a flea market in his native country.

In 1968, he moved from Hamilton, Ontario, to Miami because of health reasons and met his future wife, Marianne, while lounging on the beach. The couple moved that same year to Orlando, where he purchased several parcels in a building across from the Orlando Sentinel and opened United Trophy.

Still operating today, United Trophy sells trophies, plaques, sports apparel, ribbons and medals.

Marianne took the orders, sewed the names on the shirts and engraved the trophies, while Syd handled the manufacturing. As the business grew over the years, the couple added dozens of employees.

Marianne Levy would often frequent flea markets near Daytona Beach to buy her employees birthday gifts. Syd Levy later said it was his wife who came up with the idea of starting Flea World.

Marianne Levy died of cancer in 2011 at the age of 73. The two were married nearly 43 years.

“We were true partners, life partners,” Syd Levy said at the time. “I’m going to be lost.”

In the early years of Flea World, Levy often butted heads with county officials over efforts to add parking spaces and additional entrances. Hundreds of customers would often find parking citations on their windshields because they parked illegally along U.S. 17-92.

But Flea World wasn’t just for the hoi polloi. County commissioners, deep-pocketed developers and celebrities — including famous televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker — shopped at Flea World alongside working men and women.

“Seminole was not known as a tourism destination,” said Randy Morris, a former Seminole County commissioner and longtime Central Florida resident. “But Flea World was its tourist attraction … And it really was a different kind of place. It was enormously attractive.”

In 1988, Levy put in a zoo with lions, tigers, bears and monkeys, each named after local television personalities. However, the zoo often drew protests from animal rights activists.

He later added Fun World, a $5 million attraction next to Flea World that featured a go-cart track, bumper cars and carnival rides.

Levy often said that the best part of Flea World was that parking was always free.

“You could have not a nickel in your pocket, but you could still have a great time at Flea World,” he told a Sentinel reporter in 2015.

Flea World shut its doors to make way for a large development that calls for townhouses, shops, restaurants and offices across from Seminole’s Five Points Complex, which includes the Sheriff ’s Office, the criminal courthouse and other county offices.

Morris called Levy a man filled with “youthful optimism.”

“Syd’s intelligence and energy were just remarkable,” Morris said. “His enthusiasm was contagious. His charitable work was amazing.”