{"id":295315,"date":"2026-06-04T02:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T02:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/295315\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T02:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T02:58:07","slug":"early-orlando-influencer-the-community-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/295315\/","title":{"rendered":"Early Orlando influencer – The Community Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the May 16, 1940, edition of the Orlando Evening Star, among updates from the war raging in Europe, on the front page was an obituary: Henry A. Newell, \u201cbetter known to his many friends here as Harry,\u201d had died.\n<\/p>\n

Harry Newell (it\u2019s Harry on his tombstone) was a music teacher in Orlando, his adopted home of nearly six decades, and was best known for founding the city\u2019s band, \u201cthe first band in Orlando.\u201d This group was at the heart of the city\u2019s various celebrations over the years, performing for many of the major events around town during its heyday at the beginning of the 20th century. They\u2019d even travel around Florida and perform with, or even against other bands. The Evening Star noted the Orlando Band won a battle of the bands, \u201cone of his happiest memories\u201d for the late Harry Newell. The Orlando Band was his project, one that he shared with his wife, Gertrude.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(COURTESY OF THE ORANGE COUNTY REGIONAL HISTORY CENTER)<\/p>\n

Today, despite Harry Newell\u2019s beloved band, it is Gertrude\u2019s name that still holds a special place in town.\n<\/p>\n

Celebrity meant something a lot different around the turn of the century, in an era of far more local communication, where the most important people were the leaders in your communities. Social circles became the beating hearts of cities, and someone like Gertrude Sweet Newell<\/a> was exactly the sort of figure who would establish a name for herself, one that would never fade.\n<\/p>\n

Gertrude had everything you\u2019d need to make a proper celebrity in the early 20th century. It didn\u2019t hurt that Gertrude was described as \u201ca beautiful woman with auburn hair and blue eyes<\/a>,\u201d according to the Central Florida Genealogical Society. She was even once named the most beautiful woman in Orlando.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(COURTESY OF THE ORANGE COUNTY REGIONAL HISTORY CENTER)<\/p>\n

Gertrude Sweet\u2019s family came to Orlando in 1874 from New Orleans when she was a teenager, \u201ca year before the little town of Jernigan had its name changed to Orlando,\u201d according to the May 2, 1941, Orlando Evening Star. (Not necessarily true, by the way. We just officially incorporated the following year, in 1875.) In 1877, she was \u201cOrange County\u2019s first May Queen,\u201d as part of Orlando\u2019s first May Day celebration. She was already known then as a talented musician, and she\u2019d go on to be the pianist for the Orlando Band.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Her brother, Charles Sweet, would serve the city as mayor in the early 1880s. Mayor Sweet was a surveyor, and as the streets of Orlando were laid out, Charles made sure to put in a special spot for his sister. He called it Gertrude\u2019s Walk, and you\u2019ve probably walked right by it, right along the train tracks that have carried visitors downtown for generations. Gertrude, according to an Orlando Sentinel piece from Jan. 26, 1986, \u201cwasn\u2019t too fond of the street because it is next to railroad tracks.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Perhaps Gertrude didn\u2019t see the appeal, but it\u2019s certainly one of my favorite spots downtown. I\u2019ve spent more than my fair share of evenings walking down the street that bears her name. Head out from an event at the Kia Center, wandering for a night cap as the night goes long, and you\u2019ll no doubt find yourself along Gertrude\u2019s Walk. Hopefully you\u2019ll remember the name.\n<\/p>\n

Gertrude Sweet Newell was in this city from the very beginning, before Orlando was even Orlando. We may not have heard her music or seen her apparently famous face, but you\u2019ll know her name. She might not have liked the spot, but Gertrude\u2019s still in Orlando, 80 years after her death. If that\u2019s not fame, I don\u2019t know what is.\u00a0
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Sources for this article include the aforementioned editions of the Orlando Evening Star and Orlando Sentinel newspapers and the Central Florida Genealogical Society\u2019s April \u2013 June 1997 publication of \u201cBuried Treasures,\u201d p. 30.\u00a0\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the May 16, 1940, edition of the Orlando Evening Star, among updates from the war raging in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-295315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}