A Guide to Florida Governors and the Florida Cabinet

LeRoy Collins

Thirty-third governor: January 4, 1955 to January 3, 1961

Party Affiliation: Democrat

Lt. Governor: None

First Lady: Mary Call Darby Collins

Florida Cabinet

Secretary of State:

Robert A. Gray (1930-1961)

Comptroller:

Clarence M. Gay (1946-1955)
Ray E. Green (1955-1965)

Treasurer:

J. Edwin Larson (1941-1965)

Commissioner of Agriculture:

Nathan Mayo (1923-1960)
Lee Thompson (ad interim) (1960-1961)

Attorney General:

Richard W. Ervin (1949-1964)

Supt. of Public Instruction:

Thomas D. Bailey (1949-1965)

Florida Photographic Collection:

• Images related to Leroy Collins.
  • Search LeRoy (Thomas LeRoy), 1909-1991 in the Florida Photographic Collection.

Video:

• Video - Gov. LeRoy Collins-LeRoy Collins
  This debate between acting Gov. LeRoy Collins and future governor LeRoy Collins was filmed from a television monitor (kinescope) and simultaneously broadcast throughout Florida on radio.
• Video - Interviews With LeRoy Collins For "Great Floridians"
  The program starts with Collins talking about his loss in the 1968 Senate race, and the relation of that loss to the civil rights issue. Moves on to footage of Collins in the woods with a group of children discussing Kipling's poem "If." The film then moves to the 1960 Democratic Convention.

Collections at the State Archives of Florida:

• RG 102 Governors (1929-1971)
  • S 776 Correspondence, 1955-1961
  • S 2030 Appointment certificate, 1955
• RG 104 Governor (1979-1987 : Graham)
  • S 1306 Oral history program files, 1980-1984
• RG 900000 Manuscripts
  • M77-164 Oral histories, 1976-1977
  • M87-41 Recording of a conversation between Governors LeRoy Collins and Reubin Askew, 1987

Other Repositories:

• Papers, Strozier Library, Florida State University.
• Misc. Collection, Strozier Library, Florida State University.
• Papers, Special Collections, University of South Florida.
• Interview, Southern Oral History Program, University of North Carolina.
• Interview 48-A
• Interview, Samuel Proctor Oral History Program, University of Florida
• Interviews FP37, FP38, FP39, FP 62

Published Materials:

• Christie, Terry L. “The Collins-Johns Election, 1954: A Turning Point.” Apalachee (1963-1967).
• Cornett, John “A Study of Disposition in Selected Speeches of Governor LeRoy Collins on Race Relations.” MA Thesis: Florida State Unviersity, 1965.
• Collins, Leroy. Forerunners Courageous: Stories of Frontier Florida. Tallahassee: Colcade Publishers, 1971.
• Lucoff, Manny. “LeRoy Collins and the Association of Broadcasters.” MA Thesis: Florida State University, 1971.
• Jacobstein, Helen. The Segregation Factor in the Florida Democratic Gubernatorial Primary of 1956. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1972.
• Wagy, Tom. “A South to Save: The Administration of Governor LeRoy Collins.” PhD Dissertation: Florida State University, 1980.
• _________ Governor LeRoy Collins; A Spokesman of the New South University. Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1985.

Related Links:

• LeRoy Collins, Florida Governors' Portraits, Museum of Florida History.
• LeRoy Collins, the Florida Governor's Mansion.