ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Janie Price knew Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. before the world knew him.
Price, of St. Augustine, passed away last Friday.
While her stories live on in people's memories, they're on video and can be viewed in the Lincolnville Museum in St. Augustine.
In various video clips, she shares her stories about sit-ins at the Howard Johnson and about opening her home to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It’s part of an exhibit called “Women who Made a Difference”.
"She was just the sweetest person," Gayle Phillips said. She runs the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center.
Price lived in a house in St. Augustine on what is now called Martin Luther King Street. She and King knew each other from Atlanta during their college days in the 1940s, historian David Nolan said.
"He was dating one of her classmates," Phillips noted. "Sometimes they went on double dates."
"When he came to St. Augustine, she didn’t even know 'Dr. Martin Luther King.' Who is that? Of course, she knew Martin King! But she didn't know it was Dr. Martin Luther King," Phillips said.
But he recognized her and at a rally, Phillips says. He explained that from the stage, King said, "Janie, is that you?"
Eventually, when King came to St. Augustine, he stayed in Price’s home.
Phillips said, "He slept on her kitchen floor because Dr. King had problems with his back. He said the beds were too soft."
It’s said that Price remembers King having breakfast in her home with his colleague Reverend Abernathy right before he went to Downtown St. Augustine and was arrested at the Monson Motor Lodge. It was the only place he was arrested in Florida and it made international news.
After that time, she continued her work as a nurse.
"They called her the Florence Nightingale of St. Johns County," Nolan noted. "She worked as a public health nurse looking after families both white and black, including some of the families who had bitterly opposed the Civil Rights Movement. So she had to have grit."
While working as a nurse, Price learned white supremacists had turned her car upside down.
"They turned it over one day in the parking lot at Flagler Hospital," Nolan said.
"And she made them turn it back up!" Phillips added. "I can just see her saying, 'You just about to turn it back up!' She was feisty. She was sweet and gentle, but she was feisty!"
Phillips has recorded Price’s stories on video, along with oral histories from other people.
"There were a lot of people doing things behind the scenes, and they’ve gone on and lived ordinary lives, even though they did something extraordinary in their youth," Phillips said.
She added that recording stories from the people who worked behind the scenes is important so "that history doesn’t die with our living legends as they pass on."
The Lincolnville Museum is located on Martin Luther King, Jr. Street in St. Augustine.
