The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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Edgar A. DeLaney’s Twenty-Eight Years in Municipal Office and the Identity of E. A. DeLaney Jr.

Local histories and news accounts of Avon Park frequently describe Edgar Azell DeLaney, Sr. (1891–1979) as having served “twenty-eight years as mayor,” while the town’s published election rolls record eighteen years in the mayoral chair.[maxwell-1976][newssun-delaney-2014] Separately, local historical collections preserve a World War II photograph of an “E. A. DeLaney Jr.” with his Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress flight crew, whose precise relationship to the mayor was previously left open.[dt-delaney-b17] Archival records from the Avon Park Historical Society and published documentary sources reconcile both questions.

Reconciling the Twenty-Eight Years of Municipal Service

The apparent contradiction between eighteen and twenty-eight years arises from the compression of DeLaney’s legislative and executive service in popular retelling:

  1. Eighteen Years as Elected Mayor: Avon Park’s official register of municipal elections records that DeLaney was elected to two distinct tenures as Mayor totaling eighteen years across nine biennial terms:[maxwell-1976]

    • First Mayoral Administration (1943–1947): Elected on 14 September 1943, serving two consecutive terms through September 1947, when O. C. Wilkes was elected.[maxwell-1976] During this wartime term, Mayor DeLaney worked with Governor Spessard Holland, State Comptroller J. M. Lee, and Representative C. E. Lanier to secure the state legislation creating a branch of the Florida State Hospital at Avon Park.[maxwell-1976]
    • Second Mayoral Administration (1953–1967): Elected on 8 September 1953 (succeeding Wiley Sauls Jr. and interim leadership following the 1951 municipal election controversy), DeLaney was re-elected every two years until September 1967, serving seven consecutive two-year terms (fourteen years) until James M. Doerr succeeded him.[maxwell-1976]

  2. Ten Years of Prior City Council and Mayoral Leadership: Before his 1943 election as mayor, DeLaney completed ten years of elective service on the Avon Park City Council:[maxwell-1976]

    • City Council and Boom-Era Expansion (1920s): DeLaney was elected to the City Council during the height of the Florida Land Boom, helping oversee the municipal bond programs that paved streets, constructed modern water and sewer lines, and erected the 1928–1929 City Hall complex on West Main Street.[maxwell-1976]
    • Mayor Pro-Tem (February–April 1929): When pioneer Mayor William King and City Auditor Chester Arthur Crews were killed on 11 February 1929 when their automobile was struck by a Seaboard Air Line train, DeLaney, as City Council President, assumed the duties of executive head of the city as Mayor Pro-Tem until the special election of April 1929.[maxwell-1976]
    • Council President Re-Election (December 1929–1930s): On 3 December 1929, when Dr. Charles S. Donaldson was elected mayor without opposition, DeLaney was re-elected Council President and continued to guide council appropriations through the onset of the Great Depression.[maxwell-1976]

Combining his ten years as Councilman, Council President, and Mayor Pro-Tem with his eighteen years as formally elected Mayor yields exactly twenty-eight years of elected municipal governance in Avon Park.[maxwell-1976] The colloquial description of him as “mayor for twenty-eight years” in local tradition and later newspaper articles—such as the 2014 Highlands News-Sun review of his civic contributions—simply adopted his total municipal career under his highest and best-known title.[newssun-delaney-2014]

The Identity of E. A. DeLaney Jr.

Local photograph collections from World War II include a portrait captioned: “E. A. DeLaney Jr. with his B-17 flight crew during WWII. Native son of Avon Park Florida and decorated war hero.”[dt-delaney-b17] Because early crowd-sourced cemetery pages linked only two children from Mayor DeLaney’s first marriage (Cois Leroy “Jack” Delaney and Helen L. Delaney Peeples), earlier research questioned whether “E. A. DeLaney Jr.” was an informal alias for Jack Delaney or an unrecorded relative.[findagrave-delaney-sr]

The family lineage preserved in town records settles his identity. Edgar Azell DeLaney Sr. was married twice:[maxwell-1976]

  1. Annie Clemmons DeLaney (died c. 1921), with whom he had two children:
    • Cois Leroy (“Jack”) Delaney (3 May 1914 – 23 November 2000), who became a prominent local business and civic leader, serving as vice president of the Old Settlers Association.[maxwell-1976]
    • Helen Lucenia Delaney (Mrs. Peeples, 1920–1981).[maxwell-1976]
  2. Estelle Eugenia “Stella” Butts DeLaney (1903–1984), whom he married in the 1920s following Annie’s death.[maxwell-1976] Together they had three sons:[maxwell-1976]
    • Edgar Azell DeLaney, Jr., his namesake son, born in Avon Park in the mid-1920s.[maxwell-1976]
    • Leonard DeLaney.[maxwell-1976]
    • Thevenow Harold DeLaney, named directly in honor of Tommy Thevenow, the popular shortstop of the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals, who conducted spring training at Avon Park’s Charles R. Head Field in 1927 and 1928.[maxwell-1976]

Edgar Azell DeLaney Jr. was therefore a distinct person from his elder half-brother Jack. Reaching military age during World War II, young DeLaney enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces, served as a crew member aboard heavy Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers in combat operations, and returned decorated to central Florida.[maxwell-1976][dt-delaney-b17]

Civic Legacy in Avon Park

During his twenty-eight years in City Hall, Mayor DeLaney played a central role in several major civic developments:

  • Walker Memorial Hospital: Led the joint community drive with the Avon Park Chamber of Commerce in the mid-1940s that acquired the former Highlands Lakes Hotel resort property and established Walker Memorial Hospital in 1948.[maxwell-1976]
  • South Florida Junior College: Spearheaded municipal backing to establish the tri-county junior college in Avon Park in 1965, donating municipal facilities and coordinating land assembly.[maxwell-1976]
  • Public Housing and Desegregation: Administered the creation of federal public housing programs in Avon Park, resulting in the construction of the Delaney Heights housing complex named in his honor; and in April 1955 received the petition from Black civic leaders that led to the appointment of Fred Conner as the town’s first African American police officer.[newssun-delaney-2014]
  • Delaney Avenue: South Delaney Avenue, which traverses the historic African American neighborhood south of the original townsite, was named in recognition of his civic service.[newssun-delaney-2014]

In 1962 DeLaney was honored as “Highlands County Man of the Year.” When he died on 18 November 1979 at age eighty-seven, municipal flags across Avon Park were flown at half-mast.[maxwell-1976]

References

Where this comes from

Evidence
corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
Rights
society

Sources

  1. Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida, pages 199, 212 (references/the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md) (1976) · book
  2. Phil Attinger, Highlands News-Sun, DeLaney opposes name change — Highlands News-Sun, 26 January 2014, by Phil Attinger (2014) · newspaper
  3. Find a Grave contributors, Find a Grave memorial 51080707, Edgar Azell DeLaney Sr. (7 December 1891 – 18 November 1979), Bougainvillea Cemetery, Avon Park (2026)
  4. Downtown Avon Park Association, E A DeLaney - B17 Crew, Downtown Avon Park historical photo collection (2026)

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