Historic Hernando society honors Jo-Anne Peck with annual award

At Brooksville City Hall, Jo-Anne Peck’s name was added to the Historic Hernando Preservation Society’s Lee Anne Shoeman Award display, a pen-and-scroll recognition meant to keep Hernando County’s place history visible.

The society presents the award annually to someone who has helped deepen understanding of Hernando County’s historic significance or strengthened historic education in the county. Peck, a Brooksville preservation consultant and owner of Preservation Resource, Inc., has worked throughout Florida on preservation projects for more than 25 years, making her a familiar name in a field that often shapes what survives as the county changes.

The award carries Lee Anne Shoeman’s name for a reason. Shoeman was a Central High School English and language arts teacher in Hernando County and helped found the Historic Hernando Preservation Society in 2008. She died on May 19, 2014, at age 56, after the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office said she was found dead at her Spring Hill home after she did not report to work. The society says the award is meant to keep her memory alive and carry forward her commitment to historic accuracy and the written word.

Shoeman’s final work gives that tribute added weight. HHPS highlighted her role in the wording for the Bayport Park state markers, placing the award squarely in the county’s story of school memory, civic memory and the places that connect the two. The Bayport marker says Bayport was designated Hernando County seat and a port of delivery by Congress in 1854, had about 40 houses by 1861, and saw Union East Gulf Coast Blockading Squadron vessels intercept 11 blockade runners near the port between 1862 and 1865.

That marker was erected in 2016 with help from HHPS, the Hernando Historical Museum Association, the Florida Public Archaeology Network, the Gulf Archaeology Research Institute and the Florida Department of State, after archaeology work in 2010 and 2014-15 helped locate ship remains, the original harbor and Confederate positions. For Hernando County, that is what preservation protects now: the evidence that makes Bayport, Brooksville and other historic sites more than names on a map.

The award itself sits in Brooksville City Hall, and the society says each year’s new name plate is added while past winners are moved to the side. Virginia Jackson was the first recipient, and the list now includes Jonathan L. Yeager, Dr. Roger Landers, Frasier Mountain, David Letasi, William Rosst, Roger Sherman, Mable Sims, Suzanne Touchton and Natalie Kahler, who received the 2024 award on April 3, 2025. Nominations for the 2026 award were due Feb. 28, 2026.