SEBASTIAN — When George Keyes died last month at 97 years old, many locals instantly connected him with the Sebastian Area Historical Society, or with its 1990 book, “Tales of Sebastian,” but Keyes’ passion for history, learning and especially film pre-date that by many years.
At the bottom of his obituary was a request that memorial donations be made to the North Indian River County Library. That may have surprised some readers, but the library was apparently Keyes’ first love, as local organizations go.
Keyes belonged to a core group of who started the Sebastian library from scratch in 1983, according to the library’s first and only director Lynn Walsh, who in her retirement still heads op the Friends of the North Indian River County Library.
At the time, the library was located at 700 Main Street in the current Chamber of Commerce building. The Sebastian Library Association was independent from the county library system, later joining the county in 1986.
Walsh said Keyes spearheaded the library’s film program, which still thrives 30 years later with weekly travel films today.
Way before home theater systems and live-streaming of movies over the internet, Sebastian residents had to traverse mediocre roads to get to the movies in Vero, but they could see an interesting film at the library – for free.
The film program, Walsh said, was Keyes’ baby in every way.
“We had travel, adventure and Florida films that we would do from January through April. George was the one who would choose the films and he would run the projector,” Walsh said.
Keyes weeded through catalogs of films, carefully chose those to screen for Sebastian audiences.
At first, those films were in 16 millimeter format. Later on, they were available on video and DVD.
“He was really careful about not getting films that were too static or wouldn’t keep people’s interest. He would refuse a lot of them if they talked too long or didn’t have enough action in them,” Walsh said.
The film series was intended to educate, but also to increase foot traffic.
“Part of it, too was to promote the library, to get people into the library,” she said.
A passion for film was a carryover from Keyes’ career as a photographic engineer with ASNCO camera and film company, where he worked for 27 years. Despite his expertise in history and film, Keyes was not above doing the grunt work around the library.
“Before we joined the county, George was our handyman of sorts. He would paint and fix what needed to be fixed,” Walsh said.
When he aged out of some of the more active volunteer jobs, Keyes took to a truly entry-level position.
“When he couldn’t do other things, he worked as a shelf reader, going along each shelf and making sure the books were in order,” Walsh said.
After all his years volunteering with the Friends of the North County Library, one would think that Keyes would figure prominently in the library’s scrapbooks.
But an examination of about 20 years of scrapbooks revealed only one news clipping of Keyes and one photo of him at a volunteer event.
It appears he preferred to work behind the scenes apart from the hoop-la.
When it came to the details, however, Walsh said Keyes tactfully insisted upon high standards.
“He was always really pleasant and tried to make sure that things were done correctly,” she said.
“He was an early riser. He would get up early and come to the library and work and would always take an afternoon nap,” Walsh said. “He was a real high energy person. He wasn’t one to just stay around and talk.”
In addition to his work with the library, Keyes served as one of a handful of de facto North County historians long before the historical society was founded in May 1985. He compiled accounts of historical people and events.
“He put them in three or four volumes – way before the Tales of Sebastian – he began collecting information and put them in big notebooks and they’re in the reference section of the Main Library now. News clippings, anything he could get his hands on,” Walsh said.
Walsh said Keyes was one of the first people to source and compile the history of the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge (founded in 1903) before other materials were written by various agencies and groups.
One piece credited to Keyes is a timeline of Sebastian area history from 1605 to 1986.
Keyes begins with “1605 – Capt. Alvero Mexia, a Spanish soldier, was sent from St. Augustine to the area of the Ais Indians where he made the first known record of the river we now call St. Sebastian River.”
The article, which is available through the North County Library’s historical archives, catalogs the major milestones in the political, economic and military history of the area. From the Ais Indians and Spanish exploration to rum running, agriculture, fishing and even an earthquake in 1879, and the 1885 Census showing that Sebastian had a total of six households, Keyes outlines the area’s colorful lore.
He continues with the establishment of post offices, churches, railroads and ice plants and eventually the incorporation of the City of Sebastian in 1924.
Among the first city officials were members of the Vickers and Sembler families.
Paving and drainage seem to be the eternal issues before the Sebastian city government and it’s been that way from the beginning.
One of the first projects the city undertook, according to Keyes’ timeline, was the paving of Main Street and portions of Dixie Highway in 1925.
The articles Keyes compiled or penned in the 1990 “Tales of Sebastian” reflect a keen interest in the late 1800s and early 1900s, especially in steam boating along the Indian River.
Keyes spent some time on boats himself during his service in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve in 1942 and 1943 and later in the Coast Guard in the South Pacific.
This penchant for adventure shone through in Keyes’ articles depicting the industrious, resourceful and often salty characters who endured the harsh, mosquito-infested life in the Sebastian area in the early days.
Some of those turn-of-the-century pioneers Keyes wrote about were only one or two generations removed from himself.
Upon moving to Florida in 1979, Keyes joined up with other history buffs who gravitated toward the library and were interested in preserving historic documents and buildings and founded the Sebastian River Area Historical Society as an offshoot of the library friends group.
“I don’t think many of the current members of the historical society even know that,” Walsh said.