- July 12, 2025
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When Sue Chicone sees the clock tower in downtown Winter Garden, she’ll think of her husband, Jerry Chicone Jr.
When she sees the mid-1940s railroad caboose outside the Winter Garden Heritage Museum, she’ll think of him.
When she hears “Mr. Florida Citrus,” she’ll think of him.
When she sees the slogan “Squeeze Oranges, Not Growers” on bumper stickers and signs, she’ll think of him.
There are reminders of Jerry Chicone scattered all around Central Florida that demonstrate the profound impact he had not only on Winter Garden and the preservation of its history but also on the citrus industry as well as the lives of his friends and family.
Jerry Chicone died Thursday, May 29, 2025, at 90 years old.
Sue Chicone met her husband at a friend’s wedding in Miami. She said he knew as soon as he saw her that she was the one he wanted to marry. It took about three months to realize the same, she said. Her initial thought when meeting him was that he was interesting and fun.
After 65 years of marriage, Sue Chicone said she was never bored.
“I have no idea why he was the one (who) caught my attention, but he was just so interesting,” she said. “I have all the letters he wrote and everything because we lived in two different towns. I was in Miami, and he was a country boy in Orlando. … I can’t begin to tell you the joy it was being with him because he always had a new idea and something new for us to be working on.”
Within six months of meeting, the two married on Sept. 12, 1959.
The Chicones had three children — Jay, Cary and Susan — while living in Orlando.
“His family was No. 1, no matter what,” Sue Chicone said. “His friendships were very deep and very important to him, and he didn’t take anything lightly. He was always respectful and people respected him.”
Longtime friend Ward Britt said Jerry Chicone was a visionary.
“He had the ability to see the right way to do things and had the drive to make it happen even with the naysayers doubting him,” he said. “He was a strong, gentle, caring man who lived a very meaningful life. Most everyone knows him for his generosity but few knew how much he cared. Our city, Winter Garden, would not be what it is today without Jerry’s guidance. … I miss my friend and mentor more than I can say.”
Sue Chicone said the flexibility that came with being in the citrus industry and not in an office job afforded him the opportunity to focus on his family, friends and serving the community. He would take his children to ride ponies and sit and read a book or watch them ride.
Rather than playing golf or cards, he was using every minute of the day “trying to do something to make life better,” Sue Chicone said.
She’ll never forget when he was president of the Citrus Florida Showcase, and as the wife of the president, she had to entertain the wives of the members of the showcase. She had to host a huge luncheon, in which the governor’s wife and lieutenant governor’s wife were present, and give a speech. She recalled being terrified, but Jerry Chicone reassured her she would do great and to stay positive. At the event, she was confident and cordial, shaking hands with people and making small talk before she gave her speech.
“He made a huge mistake, because then I learned I could do it,” Sue Chicone said with a laugh. “The next thing he knew, I was being president of things, and I was making decisions. It was like he opened Pandora’s Box. He changed my life totally.”
Jerry Chicone followed in the footsteps of his father, Jerry Chicone Sr., who in partnership with M.Y. McMillan planted 750 acres of groves on Hickory Nut Lane, south of Winter Garden, in 1931.
His first introduction to citrus was riding through the groves with his father in an old Chevrolet. He earned the nickname “Bumpy” because he often would stand on the seat in the car and hit his head on the ceiling. Later in life, the nickname remained true to him as he bumped heads on issues he thought were important to the citrus industry.
Jerry Chicone started in the industry after graduating from the University of Florida with a degree in business in 1956. He went on to work in a packing house and loading trailers for Battaglia Fruit Company.
He then worked at Chicone Groves with his father and became a titan of industry in citrus, advocating for the farmers.
In the early 1980s, Chicone developed a slogan, “Squeeze Oranges, Not Growers,” that spread like wildfire throughout the state as a protest to the low prices growers were receiving for their fruit while processors were at an all-time high in the marketplace. The slogan was put on bumper stickers.
“His motto was, ‘If the grower doesn’t grow it, then the picker can’t pick it, the processor can’t squeeze it and the shipper can’t ship it,’” according to the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame, into which Jerry Chicone was inducted in 2009. “His diligence in fighting for grower returns helped elevate grower expectations and their position in the consumer chain.”
He took numerous trips to Washington, D.C., to lobby on behalf of the Florida citrus industry, and he created the first Federal Political Action Committee, of which he was the first chairman.
While many people might collect stamps or knickknacks, Jerry Chicone collected citrus labels. He collected at least 4,000 labels and formed the Florida Citrus Label Collectors Association with Polk County citrus packinghouse manager Jim Ellis and Brenda Eubanks Burnette, who represented the industry as Citrus Queen in 1981.
Sue Chicone said the couple would travel all over the country looking for labels. He wanted a place for them to be appreciated, so he donated them to the library at the University of Florida, where they have since been digitized.
Due to his passion and dedication to promoting the Florida citrus industry, Jerry Chicone was known as Mr. Florida Citrus.
Jerry Chicone always was finding ways to give back to the community.
As the president of the Orlando Chamber of Commerce, Jerry Chicone always would celebrate the accomplishments of the chamber’s staff by going to the chamber building after a function and using shoe polish to write “Congratulations, great job,” all over the windows of the building.
“When the staff came the next morning, they’d see it and it’d make them happy,” Sue Chicone said. “That was his attitude. It was always you before me. Everything he did, he was always in the background. He was always very quiet, very smart, and he enjoyed people.”
He served on numerous local and national boards, oftentimes becoming chair or president of those boards.
His love for the University of Florida Gators never faded as he continued to donate to the Gator Boosters and travel the country attending games as he did as a child with his father.
At UF, he was a member of Florida Blue Key and president of the Sigma Chi fraternity, which he continued to support throughout his life.
As a child, Jerry Chicone had a horse named Betty that he would ride into Winter Garden to go to the drugstore to sit down and read comic books.
He was a fan of baseball and at 11 years old served as a bat boy for a team of local businessmen in Winter Garden, traveling with them to games in Eustis and Mount Dora.
“On the way home, they would always stop and go into a place where they would have a beer and a hamburger or something,” Sue Chicone said. “(Jerry Chicone) was too young to go in, so he’d have to sit down on the bench outside, and they’d bring a Coke and a hamburger to him.”
Jerry Chicone became the youngest Eagle Scout at 13 years old, and his dedication to Boy Scouts earned him the Golden Eagle Award in 2004.
He called Winter Garden home until his family moved to Orlando during his sophomore year of high school, but he never forgot his roots.
Sue Chicone said her husband worked with Winter Garden’s Ann Ellis on the preservation of Winter Garden’s history before anyone else was thinking about it.
His expertise from serving on Orlando’s Downtown Development Board gave him the necessary knowledge on how to preserve the city’s history.
After the Chicones moved to Windermere, their efforts intensified, which led to Jerry Chicone and his sister Kay Chicone donating the funds needed to purchase the historic train depot and within a month, turning it into the Winter Garden Heritage Museum on Plant Street. The museum opened its doors in 1998.
More than a decade later, Jerry Chicone’s work with the museum persisted. He helped with purchasing the parking lot east of the heritage museum, making the construction of the History Research Library and Education Center possible.
The iconic clock tower in downtown Winter Garden also is connected to Jerry Chicone as he underwrote the construction of it in 2002.
Sue Chicone said she couldn’t be more proud of all her husband was able to accomplish.
“It’s a wonderful thing to be able to leave a big footprint,” she said. “Not many people do. Not many people have had the opportunity because being in the citrus business, he didn’t have to be in an office. He had the opportunity to think out of the box, and if there was a meeting or a function or something that needed attention, he could do it. That’s where he was so great on raising our children.”
