Newberry Honors Norfleet, Crone

NEWBERRY ‒ The Newberry City Commission has honored two individuals who served the City of Newberry. On March 28, the Commission approved Resolution 2022-10 renaming of the City’s Municipal Building in honor of the first, and currently only, female mayor, Metholee Norfleet. A ceremony was held on March 8, 2022 at the City’s Municipal Building to honor Norfleet and unveil a new sign reading “Mentholee Norfleet Municipal Building.”

Norfleet served as a city commissioner from 1966 until she became mayor in 1973 and served until 1984. “Mentholee selflessly sought to continuously better our community through improvement of infrastructure and pursuit of equality,” said Newberry Mayor Jordan Marlowe. “Without her efforts, our City would not be where it is at today.”

The Commission also approved Resolution 2022-17, naming Ray Crone Field at Jimmy Durden Park. Crone has served the youth of Alachua County for over three decades in many different roles. In 1998 Crone served as the physical education teacher at Archer Community School. He concluded his teaching career at Irby Elementary School in Alachua. During those years, he developed lasting relationships with families in the communities in which he taught as well as in Newberry. Many of the children he taught played youth sports in Newberry.

Crone has officiated for three decades and in over 10,000 sporting events, and served Newberry in many different roles including as Babe Ruth District III Umpire in Chief since 2001. He retired from that role only to spend more time on the fields.

Most recently, Crone came out of “retirement” from his role as a booking agent to assist Newberry with umpire scheduling and umpire development. Crone was described as demonstrating the highest level of sportsmanship and serving as an excellent role model to the players he umpired, seeing to it those young ballplayers observe the rules of fair play and that the players and coaches have respect for the game and each other.

Ray Crone Field will be named in recognition of Crone’s years of service and commitment to youth sports in Newberry.

“Ray Crone has influenced and mentored generations of our youth, and it is truly a pleasure to have the chance to recognize all that he has done for our community,” said Marlowe.

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