FORT PIERCE FOLKS
The FUNERAL DIRECTOR
Samuel S. Gaines has spent most of his life putting
40
people in the ground as a funeral director and lifting
up children in their struggles to receive an education.
Gaines is the longest-serving school board member
in Florida history, and his name is etched on plaques next to
the front doors of almost every school in St. Lucie County. For
almost 35 years, Gaines’ leadership helped steer the school
district through racial tensions over desegregation while
keeping pace with the county’s explosive growth.
When court-ordered desegregation required black children
from Fort Pierce to be bused to almost all-white Port St.
Lucie, Gaines volunteered to send his son to school almost
20 miles away when the child could have walked across the
street to an elementary school in Fort Pierce.
Samuel S. Gaines Academy K-8 in Fort Pierce is dedicated
to Gaines in appreciation of his service on the school board
from 1972 to 2006. Gaines was appointed by Gov. Reuben
Askew on the condition that he would run again six months
later when the seat was up for election. No one knew about
the arrangement until it was announced. Gaines never lost
an election.
In the 1970s there were three high schools in the county, all
in Fort Pierce. Today there are three high schools in Port St.
Lucie and three in Fort Pierce. The county’s population has
tripled and the county is no longer under federal court order
for desegregation.
“He was the pioneer of the integration of our schools,” said
Queen Townsend, a retired teacher, principal and administrator
who served as interim school superintendent for a year.
“He was on the board when it was under court order. His son
was one of the first black children bused to Port St. Lucie, and
he lived across the street from an elementary school. He was
not always accepted by his friends and neighbors because
he was looking at the bigger picture. He loves his hometown
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BY GREG GARDNER
GREG GARDNER
Samuel Gaines relaxes in his office at Stone Brothers Funeral Home, one of the Fort Pierce’s oldest continuous businesses. Next to him is the plaque he
received in 1990 as Mortician of the Year by the National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association.