A young Edythe Woodruff Stewart was terrified of that snake at the bottom of the slide.
She resisted going down, afraid it could harm her. But she remembered her father, Claude Earnest Woodruff Jr., didn’t believe in fear.
So she slid down with the fearlessness in the back of her mind, the same courageous attitude her father carried throughout his life.
Saturday, family, fellow Marines, fraternity brothers and players he’s coached posthumously honored Woodruff at a Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony. He died at 82 on June 15, 2009, but his legacy lives on as his widow, Dr. Minnie Boyer Woodruff, received the medal.
“Some call him Dad, some call him Pop, some call him Coach, but I call him my husband,” Minnie Woodruff said. “He was a good soul, God rest his soul. He has passed away, 15 years, but the spirit still remains.”
At 15, Claude Woodruff joined the Montford Point Marines, the first group of Black men to enter the Marine Corps during World War II. They were stationed in Jacksonville, N.C., from 1942-49, beginning the integration of Blacks into the U.S. military.
Woodruff returned to Union Academy High School in Bartow to graduate, then went to college at FAMU in Tallahassee from 1948-52 where he played football as a linebacker and was inducted into the FAMU Hall of Fame in 1992.
He coached and taught at several high schools, including Jones and Winter Park in the Orlando area, overseeing several players who went on to…
