Floyd Jillson once was assigned to shoot photos at Chastain Park during the showing of a night movie. He handed out matches and, at his signal, had patrons light them.
It became one of his memorable shots taken during a 43-year career with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was a photographer for the news department five years before he became chief photographer for the AJC's Sunday magazine, now defunct.
The Atlanta History Center has a collection of nearly 5,000 Jillson images, mostly in color, some black and whites, that date to the 1950s. About 2,000 of the images are viewable online at http://album.atlantahistorycenter.com.
"There are amazing photographs of Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral, 70 images that are just outstanding," said Paul Crater, vice president, research services at the Atlanta History Center/Margaret Mitchell House. "People like Jesse Jackson and Andrew Young are in those images.
"He was very thorough in documenting a number of important events and important aspects of the city of Atlanta during a time the city was undergoing tremendous economic growth, and in the infancy stages of becoming an international city."
On Feb. 16, Floyd Edwin Jillson Sr. died from complications of heart disease and renal disease at the Royal Palm Convalescent Center, a nursing home in Vero Beach, Fla. He was 84. A private graveside service was held at Arlington Memorial Park in Sandy Springs. H.M. Patterson & Son, Arlington chapel, handled arrangements.
Mr. Jillson served as a film projectionist during World War II, then attended photography school in Chattanooga, his hometown. He was 18 when he moved to Atlanta to work as a film projectionist at the Bell Bomber plant in Marietta, according to a 2003 article in Atlanta History, a defunct journal of the Atlanta Historical Society.
His plant boss recommended him to the AJC, and he was hired at $25 a week. He soon landed choice assignments, such as covering the Atlanta Crackers' spring training in Pensacola.
His photo collection at the Atlanta History Center includes aerial views of the city; shots of sports icons such as Hank Aaron and Jack Nicklaus, and politicians Sam Nunn and Herman Talmadge; and the funeral procession for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He photographed every president from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Jimmy Carter. He covered national affairs and captured stars, starlets and everyday people.
The late AJC columnist Celestine Sibley took note of the licensed pilot's retirement in a story that appeared in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"... There is a strong bond between reporters and photographers who have slogged together to floods and fires and murders, who have fought deadlines and weather, reluctant subjects and astigmatic bosses," she wrote in 1991. "Floyd Jillson was a particularly beloved member of that family."
Survivors include his wife, former model Marthalyn "Lyn" Bruce Jillson of Atlanta; a son, Floyd E. Jillson Jr. of Vero Beach, Fla.; a stepdaughter, Vicki Wilks of Atlanta; one grandchild; and two stepgrandchildren.
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