2023 Polk Arts & Culture Hall of Fame Inductees
(listed in alphabetical order)
Nat Adderley | Artist (Music) | Lakeland
Jazz icon, Nat Adderley made Lakeland his home in the eighties and is credited with being a founding member of Florida Southern College’s Child of the Sun Jazz Festival, eventually serving as Artist-In-Residence for the school. A member of the Jazz Hall of Fame, Adderley was frequently partnered with his legendary brother, Cannonball Adderley in numerous jazz bands.
It was while he was a member of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet that he composed one of today’s jazz standards, “Work Song.” Other popular other popular songs by Nat include “Jive Samba”, “Hummin'”, “Sermonette”, and “The Old Country.” After Cannonball’s death in 1975, the quintet disbanded and Nat toured Europe as a solo act. In 1997, he joined the faculty of Florida Southern College as an artist-in-residence. He also helped in the founding and development of the annual Child of the Sun Jazz Festival held annually at the university which he headlined for over a decade. During the same year, he was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame in Kansas City. Adderley was a frequent visitor to local music classrooms in the Lakeland area and often performed in the community as well.
Adderley died in 2000 at the age of 68 in Lakeland, Florida and is interred near his brother in the Southside Cemetery in Tallahassee.
Bobby Braddock | Artist (Music) | Auburndale
Bobby Braddock grew up in Auburndale and began playing in bands during his teenage years. After moving to Nashville, he played with country music legend, Marty Robbins, even writing a song for him. That songwriting experience turned Braddock on to the world of songwriting and he began a prolific and award-filled career eventually earning him membership in both the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame AND the Country Music Hall of Fame.
After playing in rock and roll bands in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Braddock moved to Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 24 to pursue a career in country music. He eventually joined Marty Robbins band and began his songwriting career with his first charting single, “While You’re Dancing.” Braddock’s songwriting career is highlighted by such notable hits as “D-I-V-O-R-C-E,” performed by Tammy Wynette and a co-writing credit on “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” the iconic country ballad sung by George Jones. In addition to being a songwriter, Braddock is also a producer, most notably discovering and producing records for current country superstar, Blake Shelton. Braddock also has written three books: “Down in Orbundale: A Songwriters Youth in Old Florida,” “Bobby Braddock: A Life on Nashville’s Music Row, and “Country Music’s Greatest Lines: Lyrics, Stories, and Sketches from American Classics.”
Braddock, the only living songwriter to have written number-one country songs in five consecutive decades, was inducted into the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 1981 and into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2011. Braddock currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee.
Clifton Lewis | Cultural Champion | Bartow
Curator Clifton Lewis is responsible for organizing, fundraising and making sure the restoration of L. B. Brown’s Bartow house and the historic legacy endures. Upon moving to Bartow in 1989, Lewis formed the Neighborhood Improvement Corporation (NIC) to work on revitalizing Bartow neighborhoods. When his interests turned to East Bartow, Lewis soon noticed the condition of the L.B. Brown House – he originally pursued the building as office space until he discovered its historic significance. Upon realizing that the important historical building was slated to be demolished, he began working to preserve the home and prevent its destruction. Lewis is the founder and president of the NIC – which is the organization that owns and maintains the house. He is also the founder of the L.B. Brown Preservation Project and the Curator of the Museum. Without his efforts there would be no L.B. Brown House today. He goes to the House Museum every day to inspect it and has given countless tours. He has spoken around the state and at out of state conferences promoting the House. Many of the tours he gives are to people from all over the country as well as to countless international tourists, ensuring that Brown’s story and the history of the local community has been dispersed worldwide.
The L.B. Brown House was designed and constructed in 1892 by a self-taught master carpenter, Lawrence Bernard Brown. Mr. Brown was born into slavery in 1856 and had limited formal education, if any. He overcame those limitations and became one of Polk County’s most successful businessmen and community leaders. The home is an impressive two-story structure with a generous amount of Victorian ornamentation. L.B. Brown was named “A Great Floridian” by the Florida Department of State and the house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also one of the exhibits in the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. – all due to the efforts of Lewis.
The annual L.B. Brown Heritage Festival, founded by Mr. Lewis and the NIC, is held during the second week of February. Lewis, was the lead supporter of the restoration efforts and continues the educational mission of the L.B. Brown House, ensuring that the history of one of Florida’s great citizens endures today.
Milfred Myhre | Artist (Music) | Lake Wales
Milford Myhre is a carillonneur and organist and received his musical training at the University of Nebraska, (Bachelor of Music degree), the University of Michigan (Master of Music degree), and the Royal Carillon School in Mechelen, Belgium. While studying at the University of Nebraska, he first began playing the carillon at the Plymouth Congregational Church in 1950. He served as carillonneur, organist, and music instructor at Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana (1957-1967) before being appointed as Bok Tower Gardens’ second carillonneur on January 1, 1968.
Myhre has received many awards including the Berkeley Medal in recognition of his distinguished contribution to the carillon art in 1983, honorary membership in the Guild of Carillonneurs of North America (GCNA) and Guilde des Carillonneurs de France, and an honorary doctorate from the University of the South in Tennessee. The City of Lake Wales issued a special proclamation declaring June 13, 2019 as Milford Myhre Recognition Day.
Myhre served as the carillonneur of Bok Tower Gardens for 36 years, until his retirement in 2004. During that time, he played daily concerts at the tower, greeted thousands of visitors to the area, hosted world-renowned composers, established the first International Carillon Festival, the Carillon Fellows program, the Anton Brees Carillon Library, and the Music at Pinewood concert series. He is also a founding board member of the Lake Wales Arts Council, the Lake Wales Museum Commission, and founder and director of the Lake Wales Chorale. He continues to volunteer for the Lake Wales Arts Center and attends and promotes arts events around Lake Wales.
Rick Olivo | Artist (Visual Arts) | Lakeland
Rick Olivo utilized the arts as a catalyst in everything he did. He was an actor, director, set designer, costume and makeup designer, painter, sculpture, educator, activist, mentor, and encourager.
Olivo was born in Puerto Rico and raised in the South Bronx. Before moving to Polk County in the 1980s, he was a professional actor, portrait painter, children’s book Illustrator, founder of TAAPCAP (an art program for pregnant teens), artist for the New York Library system, and lecturer for the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
In Polk County, Olivo found work as an art therapist for the Winter Haven Hospital, a storyboard artist for Universal Studios, a director of productions at Concept 21 Productions, and horror makeup artist for Cypress Gardens. He later went on to design sets and direct productions at the Winter Haven Theater and founded Pied Pipers Children’s Theater (Lakeland Community Theatre). He was also one of the founding members of Explorations V Children’s Museum (Florida Children’s Museum) where his giant dragon remains on display. Olivo completed numerous other projects, including the restoration of Polk Theater’s interior frescoes and ceiling, the sculpting of animal figures for local parks, and creation of the swan prototypes for Exploration V Children’s Museum’s signature public sculpture project, “Swansation,” which celebrated Lakeland’s famous swans.
As an arts educator, Olivo taught in many area schools, particularly Rochelle School of the Arts. He also held the Polk Museum of Art’s Museum Educator for Outreach position, teaching and mentoring at-risk youth and taught varying visual and performing arts classes at the museum for over 20 years. In addition to teaching in the traditional classroom and studio, he spent many afternoons teaching art to the neediest of populations in Polk County’s migrant camps, without fanfare or remuneration.
Over the 40 years Olivo spent in Polk County, he left a legacy of utilizing the arts to encourage growth for all and for our future generations. He exemplified this in his last years supporting Art Crawl, Inc., an organization where he served on the board for 6 years, continuing to mentor emerging artists and raising art awareness.
Olivo passed away in Lakeland, Florida in 2022. He was 74 years old.
Harriet Rust | Cultural Champion | Davenport
Harriet Rewis Rust made her career in the floral industry, even creating designs for Presidents, Governors, superstars, and Super Bowls. She has used her creativity/talent in her church as the pianist for 40 years while also leading youth choirs, fine arts programming, set design, and a variety of community/church events.
Her commitment to the Davenport community, including May Day celebrations at Davenport Elementary and Halloween Community Events, helped arts and culture to flourish in Davenport. Later in her career and in her early retirement, she founded the Davenport Historical Society with then-Mayor Peter Rust (her late husband). The DHS founded the Quilts and Tea Festival that brought together the Davenport School of the Arts, many sewing organizations, local churches, and even visitors from Africa to participate in the artisan event. In addition, DHS also supported the Plein Air initiative that has expanded throughout the county. She and her late husband pioneered the Highwaymen Arts Festival that began in Davenport in 2011 and continues to this day! Rust got the idea of inviting Florida’s original Highwaymen, after founding the Horsecreek Fesitval in Davenport at which several Highwaymen participated. This specific festival also celebrated arts from local students and professional artists.
Though Northeast Polk County is no longer the rural area it once was, Rust consistently looked for ways to bring arts programming to the Davenport and the surrounding communities. She worked closely with Myrtice Young at the Polk History Center to start the Citrus Label Tour, a significant cultural and historical project highlighting Polk’s role in Florida’s citrus industry.