Order Sons of Italy in America, Florida Grand Lodge records

The Florida Grand Lodge was founded on February 8, 1953, the twentieth state lodge chartered by OSIA. The first local lodge in the state, Cesare Battisti #857, was founded in Jacksonville in 1918 by Italian American soldiers based at Fort J. E. Johnson. During the 1920s two additional lodges were organized in Tampa. Over twenty years passed before another lodge came into being, in 1949; and then ten lodges were founded in the 1950s and three in the 1960s. The organization of 22 local lodges in the 1970s and twenty additional ones in the 1980s is probably a reflection of the general population movement, especially of elderly people from the Northeast, to Florida and other southern and western states.

The Florida Grand Lodge hosted the Order's 1953 Supreme Convention in Tampa, and a number of its members have served on the Supreme Council since that time. The state lodge has a Benefit Insurance program and is active in anti-defamation, scholarship awards, and charity causes. In 1957 the lodge had a total membership of 903. This figure dipped to 606 in 1969, then rose to the 1,578 mark in 1975. Membership continued to rise as new lodges were formed and reached 2,153 in 1982.

Florida is one of the two states that have elected women to the position of State President. Grace Genco-Campisi, who served in this office from 1965 to 1969, was the first woman ever elected to head a grand lodge. Jennie Albano was elected State President in 1977 and served one term.

Occasional newsletters were published by the Florida Grand Lodge during the 1960s. A newspaper, The Sunshine News, was published from 1971 to 1981; and this was followed by another newspaper, The Floridian, from 1981 to 1988.