"Grandmother of the Everglades"

"There are no other Everglades in the world." Since 1972, those words have greeted new employees of the Everglades National Park. They came from a woman who for more than fifty years led a tireless crusade to preserve one of Florida's most extraordinary natural resources.

Known as the "little lady with the funny hats," Marjory Stoneman Douglas fell in love with Florida at an early age. When she was only four years old, she made her first trip to Florida and was immediately enchanted. She returned for good in 1915 to work as a news reporter for The Miami Herald. Soon growing tired of reporting, however, Marjory tried her luck as a freelance writer. For the next thirty years she wrote short stories, editorials, and poems, many of them celebrating the beauties of the Everglades about which she had come to care so deeply.

As early as 1915 Marjory had already realized that the Everglades was in trouble. Wide-spread poaching endangered wildlife, while proposed real-estate development threatened land and water. Marjory knew that something needed to be done if the Everglades, so beautiful yet so fragile, was to be saved. She devoted the rest of her life to protecting it.

Her persistence gradually made a difference. One of the most satisfying moments of Marjory's life came in 1947 with the dedication of the Everglades National Park, which would safeguard the native splendor of the area. Later that same year she published River of Grass, the first history of the Everglades. The book celebrated the natural beauty of the region and warned of the dangers that jeopardized its existence. River of Grass also established Marjory as the "Grandmother of the Everglades." Marjory was, in fact, one of the first environmentalists in the United States at a time when the word "ecology" was not even generally known.

When a developer proposed to build a large airport on a prime strip of land in the Everglades, Marjory founded the Friends of the Everglades, an environmental watchdog group that successfully prevented the construction. The group is still active today and has been largely successful in making certain that the Everglades remains undisturbed. Marjory also often lobbied local and state officials concerning the Everglades, emphasizing the need to restore a more natural water flow and to shield the many animals, birds, and reptiles that called the region home. Her message to all was simple: "Protect the Everglades."

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