Papers created by James Velma Keen.

James Velma Keen was born in Dublin, Georgia on August 23, 1899 and moved to River Junction, Gadsden County, FL with his parents in 1902, then to Marianna, FL in 1913. His father, James Henry Keen, began the first Coca-Cola bottling plant in North Florida in River Junction in 1907, and the plant operated continuously until 1954, when it merged with the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Marianna, begun in 1913. For the Marianna operation, Keen's father organized a corporation known as Purity Bottling Works. In 1924, the Purity Bottling Works name was changed to the Marianna Coca-Cola Bottling Company. Upon James Henry Keen's death in 1942, his son, Charlton Keen, became president, secretary, and manager of this plant, and operated it until he died in 1957, when James Velma Keen became its president and director.

Before graduating from the University of Florida, where he received the LL.B (1922) and A.B. (1923) degrees, James Velma Keen attended the Georgia School of Technology, Oglethorpe University, and the University of Pittsburgh. He was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1923 and began his law practice in Sarasota, principally with the firm of Sawyer, Surrency, Carter, and Keen, which Keen operated from 1922-1932.

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