In 1954, when Josephine Cortes came to Englewood, the town had no newspaper, no library, and no published history. She founded, published, and edited
The Englewood Herald, a weekly costing ten cents, from September 2, 1955 to 1957. Later she wrote columns on Englewood for other papers.
By accident, Cortes helped found not one, but two libraries. The town of Englewood lies in both Sarasota and Charlotte counties. As plans were being finalized for the Elsie Quirk Public Library (in Sarasota County), the library steering committee suddenly had mixed news. The bad news was that Charlotte County funds could not be spent for a facility in another county. The good news was that, although there was a short deadline to apply for them, funds were available in Charlotte County for an existing library.
Cortes hurriedly found a storefront room, rent-free for the first month, and scrounged discarded cement blocks for the bookcases. She and volunteers went door-to-door asking residents for their libraries, or a few books, or if they could borrow some books. A few days later, when the Charlotte County Commissioners came to inspect the "library," it had 1,000 volumes. The commissioners gave the money, and the Englewood Charlotte Library was born. Cortes and her committee also managed to obtain the first funds ever allocated for public library use by the Sarasota County Commission, a step that opened the path for the county library service.
Cortes fostered a community appreciation of its history by founding the Lemon Bay Historical Society, and founding the "Pioneer Days" annual celebration in 1956. Using Florence Johnson's manuscript as a basis, Cortes published the first history of Englewood,
The History of Englewood. Her second book is It Happened in
Englewood.