Thirty-five books (also called vignettes). Over 400 poems. And Jacqueline N. Cotman isn’t finished yet. A prolific writer, her work inspires countless individuals. Over 30 years ago, she started researching family history and genealogy, lecturing and displaying her findings to others.

“I’ve always written poetry,” Jacqueline shares.

She is a woman who not only creates, but connects. Her poetry is woven through her family story, her education, her service, and the many communities she has touched over the years.

Jacqueline was born in Pierce, a small village in Polk County once known as the headquarters of the phosphate industry. She later spent part of her childhood in Mulberry, Florida.

That love of heritage runs deep. Jacqueline’s grandfather was one of the first graduates of Florida A&M University in 1892. Her great-grandfather was the first Black assistant treasurer in the state of Florida. These are not just facts tucked away in a family tree. In Jacqueline’s hands, they become living history.

Over the years, she has lectured on genealogy and family history, displayed artifacts of family life at cultural festivals, and used poetry to capture the places her family lived, the people who shaped them, and the stories that deserve to be remembered. “So the poetry ties into what I am doing,” she says, “that capture my family life and the ancestral family life, the places that we lived and the places that we visited.”

Her work has found a lasting home in the Black archives at Florida A&M. Jacqueline deeply values the educators who have embraced her work over the years. “It has helped others make their lives greater,” she says. “I really appreciate the professors, teachers, and principals (there).”

Education has always been central to Jacqueline’s life. She graduated from Florida A&M in 1967 in just three years, earning a degree in theater at only 20 years old. But because she had not yet turned 21, she could not sign a teaching contract when she returned home to Tampa. Then life opened an unexpected door.

At the time, Black teachers in Hillsborough County went on strike for better pay, and substitute teachers were needed. Jacqueline’s mother pointed her toward an opportunity at the very high school Jacqueline herself had graduated from just three years earlier. There, she stepped in as a substitute teacher and also took on another major role: directing the senior class play.

 “I saved the cultural life of the high school that year,” she smiles

The production was a success. One student later went from high school straight into Hollywood productions. Jacqueline remembers him fondly. “He was a natural actor at the time,” she says.

Her gifts extended beyond the stage. Jacqueline was also invited to model professionally for Maas Brothers department stores. She modeled clothing, appeared in commercials, and sold tons of clothes in the process. She was even recruited by the Fashion Fair modeling circuit connected to Ebony magazine. But at 17, she was too young to sign a contract, and her mother said no.

Jacqueline stayed in school.

“I wanted to teach,” she says.

That decision says a lot about her priorities. Glamour may have opened one door, but purpose opened another.

It was also at Florida A&M where Jacqueline met the man who would become her husband, Henry Earl Cotman, MD. She was a freshman; he was a senior. They met through fraternity and sorority connections, and they were not really supposed to date upperclassmen. “We obeyed the rules as much as we possibly could,” she says with a smile.

Still, their connection deepened. They went to lunch, and as Jacqueline puts it, “the rest is history.”

This June, the Cotmans will celebrate 53 years of marriage.

Dr. Cotman was the second Black male admitted to medical school at the University of Florida and later became board certified in radiation oncology, helping shape a specialty that was rapidly evolving. Jacqueline speaks with admiration about his career, including his work with technologies like the linear accelerator, gamma knife, cyber knife, and proton beam treatments. “He established radiation oncology in Michigan,” she says.

Together, Jacqueline and Earl built a life marked by service.

In October 1988, the family moved to Snell Isle from Bayfront Tower after learning that children under 14 were not allowed there. They had their young daughter, Sochitl, and needed a new home. A well-known local REALTOR® helped them relocate, and they moved into the third home built by an Egyptian architect-builder.

At a “Come Meet Your Neighbors” reception, they met many of the people in the community. Jacqueline remembers the warmth of those early days fondly. “The neighbors on our street were exceptionally friendly,” she says.

Snell Isle has been home since 1988, and it is where much of her story has continued to unfold.

One especially meaningful chapter involves a keepsake photograph Jacqueline recently shared. In March 1988, during Rev. Jesse Jackson’s second presidential campaign, he attended a fundraiser in Tampa. Sochitl was just three months old at the time, seated in her stroller. Rev. Jackson reached down and picked her up. Jacqueline recalls that he did not say anything, but the moment was memorable enough that her husband snapped a photograph they would treasure for years.

“She looks like she is telling him something,” Jacqueline says of her daughter in the photo.

For Jacqueline, it is a piece of cultural history, the kind of moment she has spent her life preserving.

That instinct to document, honor, and teach has never left her. Jacqueline has had poetry framed in classrooms after speaking to students. Teachers invited her back. Schools in Tampa and Clearwater presented her with awards in appreciation of the lectures she gave. Professors have philosophized on her work and even created new courses from it. Through it all, she kept writing.

She still does.

Jacqueline has an extraordinary story, but perhaps what is most striking is not just how much she has done. It is how intentionally she has done it. She has chosen to remember. To record. To teach. To create. To lead.

And in doing so, she has made sure that history will not be forgotten.