Institutions pass less often.
Institutions pass less often.
Raiford Brown was such an institution. For 65 years he was a part of downtown Jacksonville, as surely as the rising sun. Raiford Brown was at the city's heart each working day, and more. Six days a week, from 7 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon, with a sandwich and a soft drink in the middle, Brown plied his trade as a barber and his role in life as friend to all. From 1925 until he retired in 1989, Brown was seldom more than a couple of snips from the seats of power and influence in his adopted city.