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PLANT CITY — On the morning of Jan. 16, 1935, Frank Pratt was delivering newspapers on his bicycle in Ocklawaha, a small town in Marion County, when he noticed something odd.
A lot of dark sedans were converging on a two-story wooden house.
A five-hour gunbattle ensued, resulting in the FBI killings of gang members Kate "Ma" Barker and her son Fred.
Mr. Pratt, who was 15 at the time, went on to a quiet career as an electronics technician in Tampa. His life experiences and tendency to research anything that interested him meant he had lots of detailed stories to tell his children and grandchildren, and an answer for any question.
"Sometimes I think they were sorry they asked," said Wanda Pratt, his wife of 59 years.
The Bradford County native served in the Navy during World War II and was aboard the USS Montgomery in 1944 when a Japanese mine blew a hole in the destroyer.
In 1951 he married Wanda Terrell, whom he had met at a wedding. The couple lived in Tampa, where he spent 20 years working for Southern Photo and News, then as an electronics technician and audio-visual tech for Hillsborough County schools.
Mr. Pratt and his wife retired and moved to Plant City in 1988, where he settled into a routine that seldom changed.
"He would ride his bicycle and check what was going on in the neighborhood," said Wanda Pratt, 79. "Then he would put on his hat, a long-sleeved shirt and do gardening."
He created compost heaps for enriching the soil with all the care of a winemaker, usually with a radio nearby so he could listen to sports or conservative talk shows. He recorded his activities, including details such as the amount of rainfall that day, in notebooks that now fill a drawer.
Several years ago, the Pratts attended a re-enactment of the Ma Barker shooting in Ocklawaha. Residents crowded around Frank Pratt when they learned he had seen agents unloading 3,500 bullets into the Barkers' hideout.
"When people found out he had lived there at the time and witnessed the commotion, it was almost like he was famous," his wife said. The Lake Weir Chamber of Commerce has since discontinued the re-enactment.
Mr. Pratt was feeling well, his family said, until Sept. 11, when he told his wife something wasn't quite right.
She brought coffee to his recliner in the bedroom, then breakfast.
She left the room momentarily, then returned to find him unresponsive. Emergency workers were unable to revive him. Mr. Pratt was 92.
Although his sudden death has hit the family hard, they take some consolation in knowing he suffered few ill effects of aging and had retained his alertness.
"He was sharp as a tack to the end," his wife said.
Andrew Meacham can be reached at (727) 892-2248 or ameacham@sptimes.com.
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