BY MILT THOMAS

After 30 years in the journalism business and the last nine at local classical music station WQCS, Janie Gould is retiring as of April 26 – or is she?

A fifth generation Florida native, Janie Gould moved to Vero Beach as an infant after her father, John Gould, became a founding partner of the Gould Cooksey law firm, the first beachside law practice. After graduating from the University of Florida with a degree in Journalism, Janie took a job as reporter for the Palm Beach Post. From there she became editor of the University of Florida alumni magazine, then worked for the Ft. Pierce Tribune as a reporter, copy editor and city editor.

But public radio was her first love. As she notes, “I always loved public radio and thought it would be a dream to work there. I never thought it would be a paying job though.”

She started as a volunteer news reader, then began writing news copy, eventually doing newscasts. But she would soon be known for her “Floridays” segments. “It started out of an oral history project where I went around the region doing interviews with everyday people who had lived in Florida for many years. My first interview was with a Ft. Pierce man who wanted to talk about the old days. In it he mentioned hunting sea cows and sea turtles for food. It turned into a story about the way people lived back then, how they struggled to survive.”

Yes, sea cows now are more commonly known as manatees and are a protected species, just as the city we call home was once wetlands and would never have come into existence under today’s regulations.

With each successive interview, Janie’s interest in Florida history grew. “I found it fascinating and learned so much about life in the early days. One lady said she helped her father collect Spanish moss from the trees. He would dry it out and sell it as mattress stuffing to earn cash. These were salt of the earth people who simply went about their daily lives raising a family and doing whatever they had to in order to survive. It is hard to imagine what it was like considering the great quality of life we enjoy today.”

Her library of interviews now numbers more than 250, on such diverse subjects as a World War II German prisoners of war in Florida, a local family dairy and how John’s Island was once considered as a university site. “I was interested in why a section of A1A is known as the Robert C. Spillman Memorial Highway, so I asked Alma Lee Loy.

“In the early 60s, local developer Fred Tuerk owned a great deal of land on the barrier island and offered some of it to the state for a new university. Officials from the Board of Regents came to look at the land and had mixed feelings because its remoteness and dense jungle. But they later informed us that we were in the running and had to submit a final proposal. With only days to spare, Bob Spillman, a young banker who was also a pilot, offered to hand carry our proposal to Tallahassee, which he did. On his return flight, Bob Spillman’s small plane crashed and he was killed. He was admired by many in town, including Fred Tuerk. We didn’t get the college and several years later, Tuerk sold his land to the developers of John’s Island.”

These stories and many more ended up in two books by Janie Gould, Stories From Under the Sun,  I and II, which are given as membership gifts to WQCS Radio subscribers. “Floridays” segments are not only heard on WQCS (every Friday at 7:20am and 5:45pm), but also on Florida Frontiers, a statewide public radio program put on by the Florida Historical Society. They can also be found on the WQCS website (wqcs.org) and iTunes.

In addition to “Floridays,” Janie has produced many radio programs and documentaries for WQCS. She has earned awards for her work from the state and from the Associated Press. She also writes book reviews and features for Indian River Magazine in her spare time.

She can look back with great satisfaction on her journalistic career. So now, about her retirement.

“I still have my 16-year old daughter, Lori, who is a 10^th grader at Vero Beach High School. My hobby is piano and I plan to start taking lessons again now that I have more time.”

Janie is a music lover, an occasional soloist at Trinity Church and on the Piano Scholarship Committee of the Vero Beach Opera Society. “I also read a lot, usually two or three books at a time, and my current focus is on the Russian classics. I belong to a book review group.”

She also serves on the board of Vero Heritage, Inc. and is a past president of the Indian River County Historical Society. For exercise, she loves to hike the many trails around Vero.

But Janie’s retirement also includes writing for Indian River Magazine and doing more local history research, possibly more books. “I still have a lot of Floridays left to do.”

Retired or not, we are all happy to hear she will continue her good work.