AN EXTRAORDINARY AMERICAN WOMAN--108 YEARS STRONG!

MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS

 

Nearly two hundred years ago President Andrew Jackson said, “One man with courage makes a majority.”  In reality, he could have been speaking about an extraordinary American woman named Marjory Stoneman Douglas.  She, more than anyone else, fought tirelessly and valiantly to save the Everglades of Florida.  She faced strong opposition from landowners and agricultural and business interests who wanted the Everglades drained because they considered it swampland, a nuisance and mosquito infested and wanted to build homes on it.  She took up the cause at the age of 79 and continued until her death at the amazing age of 108. 

 

In 1993 Marjory was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Clinton, the highest civilian honor awarded in the United States.  She was once visited by Queen Elizabeth II and gave her a copy of her famous book, THE EVERGLADES, RIVER OF GRASS.  When she died in 1998 the INDEPENDENT, a British newspaper wrote, “In the history of the American environmental movement, there have been few more remarkable figures than Marjory Stoneman Douglas.”  She became known as the “Grandmother of the Glades.”

Marjory was a persuasive and eloquent speaker.  Her supporters became known as Marjory’s Army.  Regarding the Everglades, she once remarked, that “swamp” was an important part of the ecosystem.  She called the Everglades “a river of grass,” just as the native tribes did many years before.  In her 1947 book she described the world of water and grass and how it held “the secrets of time.”  Her first line in the book stated, “There are no other Everglades in the world.”  Her book didn’t take long to sell out and it got people involved in the importance of protecting the region.  Lawton Chiles, former Florida governor once said about her, “Marjory was the first voice to really wake a lot of us up to what we were doing to our quality of life.  She was not just a pioneer of the environmental movement, she was a prophet, calling out to us to save the environment for our children and our grandchildren.”

Marjory Stoneman Douglas was born April 7, 1890 and was an accomplished writer and environmentalist,as well as a leader in the women’s suffrage movement, civil rights, and the fight against poverty. She wrote over one hundred short stories for magazines and in 1915 she started working for the newspaper her father started, which became the Miami Herald. As a reporter she wrote about life and events in Florida in the early 1900’s.  At that time there were only a few thousand people living in Miami. She joined the Red Cross in World War I and cared for refugees in France.  When she returned to the U.S. she became assistant editor for the Miami Herald.  In 1923 she left the newspaper and branched out on her own, continuing to write and speak out about injustices that she saw.  She had learned to become a risk taker, just as her father, who was an adventurer and one unwilling to accept defeat, despite several business failures.  He also strongly opposed attempts to drain the Everglades and influenced Marjory in that regard.

MARJORY AS A SENIOR IN COLLEGE

 

Marjory was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and was an only child.  Her parents moved to Providence, Rhode Island when she was three and separated by the time she was six.  Reading became a means of escape for Marjory and she started writing her own stories, the first of which was published when she was only 16.  As her mother became seriously ill, it was her grandmother who encouraged Marjory to become independent.  She attended Wellesley College near Boston and in 1911 she and her college friends formed a club to support women’s voting rights.  Her mother, whom she was very close to, died shortly after Marjory’s graduation.  She had been a talented musician.

Today, little more than a decade after Marjory’s death, there is a nature center in Key Biscayne, Florida called the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Nature Center.  For Marjory it  represented the importance of our connection and dedication to the environment.  Few things she viewed as more important.

One day I hope to visit the Everglades.  I’m certain that it will be a memorable and inspirational journey and Marjory Stoneman Douglas will be there in spirit.  She is proof of the amazing difference one person can make in our world.