Weona Cleveland was born in 1925, and as a child, she lived in the small country town of Moreland, Georgia. After moving to Brevard in 1961, she started working as a journalist for the Melbourne Times weekly newspaper and FLORIDA TODAY during the early 1970s.
After retiring in 1987, she continued to write her popular FLORIDA TODAY "Spotlight on History" column for the next 20 years. She also conducted historical walking tours in downtown Melbourne and Eau Gallie.
Cleveland also wrote articles for the Indian River Journal, a periodical published by the Brevard County Historical Commission. Her photo collection is preserved in the historical commission's archives.
In May 2006, the Brevard County Commission unanimously appointed Cleveland as an honorary county historian.
Then in January 2009, Cleveland received the Julius Montgomery Pioneer Award from the Florida Institute of Technology in honor of her work documenting Black history in Brevard.
The retired Melbourne Times and FLORIDA TODAY reporter and columnist chronicled Space Coast history in newspaper pages for decades.
Hundreds of historical topics abounded in Cleveland's "Spotlight on History" columns. She specialized in stories detailing South Brevard's post-Civil War settlement when newcomers arrived in oxcarts, boats, mule-drawn wagons, tin lizzies, and Henry Flagler's railroad to carve communities out of the surrounding wilds.
Cleveland passed away peacefully in October 2022 in Melbourne, Florida at the age of 97
© Florida Institute of Technology.
