Meet Marjory Stoneman Douglas

It was clear from an early age that Marjory Stoneman Douglas was going to be a voice for those who needed her.

Marjory Stoneman was born in Minnesota and raised in Massachusetts. She was a voracious reader and writer from a young age. At Wellesley College, she was elected class orator. This was a fitting honor for a woman who used her voice to create action.

Douglas briefly married a man who turned out to be a fraud and a con artist. She moved to Miami to obtain a divorce in 1915 and was reunited with her estranged father, who was a newspaper editor.

Douglas began writing society columns for the newspaper but found it unfulfilling. She decided to join the American Red Cross and served in Paris during World War I.

After returning to Florida, Douglas continued to write about any topic that interested her, including women’s rights, civil rights, urban planning and environmental issues.

She produced several books of fiction as well as nonfiction, including her best-known book, The Everglades: River of Grass.

Douglas continued her activism until her death at the age of 108.