05/28/2026
In the 1950s a dynamic couple, Edmund, an internationally known Associated Press journalist and his Chilean born wife Nena, were embraced by the community upon their arrival. Some of you, both adults and children of the time period, will remember attending parties at the Chester home located on Old Highway 441, just outside The Chesterhill Subdivision…property which they once owned. The following is the story of the Chester family written by their daughter Carolyn Chester Lamb. If you knew the Chester’s, please share your favorite memory in the comments.
The Chesters-1949-2001
Many of you may have known the Chesters -- they lived in the big white house on old 441 outside of Mount Dora, surrounded by 76 acres of land and orange groves. Many of you probably knew them for the wonderful parties and Nena's cooking, and it was not unusual for celebrities and dignitaries to make their way to Mount Dora to visit the Chesters, their arrivals sometimes even making it into the Mount Dora Topic. Edmund and Nena had four children -- Patricia, Cynthia, Edmund Jr., and Carolyn, their youngest. The Chesters were not Cuban, though because of Edmund's deep ties to Latin America and Nena's Latin heritage, many townspeople thought they were. Edmund was from Louisville, Kentucky and Nena was from Santiago, Chile.
Edmund began his career as a journalist with the Associated Press, eventually rising to head the entire Latin American division. It was while covering the catastrophic 1939 earthquake in Chile that he met Nena in Santiago -- and if that devastating event had never happened, none of these stories would be here to tell. He brought her home as his bride, and together they built a life that would span two continents. He then created La Cadena de las Americas, CBS's hemispheric radio network linking 122 stations across twenty-one nations during World War II, fighting N**i propaganda with music and news. He went on to become Director of CBS News, Sports, and Special Events, one of the most powerful positions in American broadcasting, overseeing the work of some of the greatest names in journalism -- Edward R. Murrow, Eric Sevareid, Howard K. Smith, and Lowell Thomas. It was during those years that he and President Fulgencio Batista, then living in exile in Daytona Beach, found the Mount Dora property on a fishing trip together. When Edmund left CBS in March 1952, Mount Dora became the family's permanent home.
He returned to Cuba to run the Cadena Azul radio and television stations, eventually becoming public relations advisor to President Batista, commuting back and forth between Havana and Mount Dora. The family often traveled to stay with him in Havana, and friends from Mount Dora would make the trip to visit. In the early summer of 1958, as the situation in Cuba grew increasingly dangerous for anyone connected to President Batista, the threat followed the family home to Mount Dora. Shortly after Carolyn's birth in early July, the owners of a nearby motel called the house with a warning. Patricia and her friends were swimming in the pool when they were told to get out and leave immediately. Moments later, men drove into the driveway, turned around, and shot at the windows of the living room. The bullet marks remained on that house for years. The incident was later declassified by the FBI. When Castro seized power in January 1959, Edmund chose silence, his family came first. He quietly lived out his last days in Mount Dora, his remarkable story known to very few.
Carolyn, the youngest, has spent decades giving interviews and testifying before Congress on behalf of American certified Cuba property claimants. Determined to bring her father's story out of the shade and into the light, she has spent years piecing together his life from original archives. The result is the Americans Forgotten: Shade to Shine series.
Three books are now available, The Kentucky Pan American: The Early Years with QR codes linking to his original films, The Reporter's Passports: Through His Eyes featuring archival photographs, and La Cadena: Voices That Linked the Americas with QR codes linking to authentic recordings from the era. Three more are in the works, The Tiffany Network Builder: The Gold Standard, Last Time in Havana, and The Chesters, family and life right here in Mount Dora.
