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Eulogy
delivered by Joe Browder at
Marjory's memorial service
in Everglades National
Park.
The
Everglades became important to Marjory when she moved to Miami in 1915
to work for her father's newspaper. She saw her father struggle when real
estate developers pressured advertisers to stay away because his editorials
condemned the destruction of the Everglades.
Marjory became important to the Everglades when she was a middle-aged
woman. It happened when she was 57 years old, and not because of her
earlier service on a citizens' committee recommending creation of the
Everglades National Park. It was because of her perfect book, Everglades:
River of Grass, which was published in 1947, the same year that the park
opened, its boundaries reaching from the mangrove coast at Everglades City,
east through the Big Cypress and Shark Valley and south down to Flamingo
and the Keys.
Marjory was 78 years old when she became essential to the survival of the
Everglades. I went to her for help 30 years ago, in 1968, asking her to
give up her author's life and become a political activist. The Everglades
was in trouble.
The park's boundaries had been shrunk, with Big Cypress removed and ripe
for development. Dade County and the federal government were working
together to build a commercial airport in the Big Cypress just above the park.
The Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management
District, under pressure from agriculture and real estate speculators, refused
to meet
their legal obligations to protect Everglades National Park. Meanwhile, the
Interior Department and White House stood silent.
As she later titled her autobiography, Marjory became the Voice of the
River. The destructive and economically foolish airport was stopped. Big
Cypress came back into the national park system, and Congress forced the
Corps and the state to recognize the Water Management District's obligation
to the park.
Marjory was 108 years old when she met with some friends on her birthday
last month. She talked about love and friends and children. She talked
about the wonderful Dade County Nature Center that wears her name. She
asked about the Everglades.
Now, Marjory is part of the Everglades. We all know what we owe Marjory. We
all know what we owe the Everglades. It is much more than we are giving now.
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