Florida folk musician Gamble Rogers died on this date in 1991. While Rogers was camping at Flagler Beach, a young girl ran to him, begging him to help her father, who was in trouble in rough surf. Despite suffering from spinal arthritis that had been worsening since childhood, Rogers grabbed an air mattress and headed into the ocean in an attempt to rescue the man. Both men died in the surf. The Flagler Beach State Recreation Area was renamed Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area at Flagler Beach in 1992 in his honor. Gamble Rogers received a Florida Folk Heritage Award posthumously in 1993 and was later inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 1998
~Florida Historical Society
