Booker T. Lewis, born January 10, 1921, and Flossie Jones Lewis operated Lewis Sundae Shoppe from 1955 until approximately 1963 at 1217 North Cove Boulevard in Panama City, Florida, where family members and friends worked and where it became a social gathering place after school and on weekends, with a back patio for eating and dancing, speakers for the jukebox inside, a barbecue pit, and Booker T.'s well-known barbecue sauce. In 1967, Lewis Bail Bonding was established, and Lewis became the first Black bail bondsman in Panama City, Bay County, Florida. He wrote bonds in Jackson, Gulf, Franklin, Washington, and other surrounding counties, and at one time, because of his integrity, he was the only bondsman allowed to write bonds on Panama City Beach. Lewis opened the door to the bail bonding business for other black people in Bay County and worked as a bail bondsman for 17 years until he was murdered in his office on September 19, 1984.