In early 2007, Padgett and Negrete moved uptown by becoming co-owners with Georgie Kessinger, of Georgie’s Alibi, THE bar on Wilton Drive– eventually buying out Kessinger completely several months later. Named after original owner Bill Adkins, the bar became Padgett’s launch pad for notoriety, as his larger-than-life personality drew the LGBT community out of Wilton Manors and down NE 13 th St. A year later, he met his long-time partner Mark Negrete, and together they bought Bill’s Filling Station, a successful, but out-of-the-hood gay bar located near the train tracks on NE 11 th Avenue in Fort Lauderdale. Padgett moved to Fort Lauderdale from his small South Carolina hometown of Elloree-population 620-in 2003. Padgett, whose real name was Jack Lee Padgett Jr., had been ill for several weeks with a severe case of pneumonia. Jackson Padgett, the former owner of Alibi Bar in Wilton Manors, died Saturday, January 18, 2020, at the Prisma Health Richland Hospital in Columbia, SC.
