A Vero Beach woman will be commemorated with a historical marker for her civic and women’s rights advocacy, as part of a celebration for America’s 250th birthday and of the women who helped shape Florida’s history.
The late ‘First Lady of Vero Beach,’ Alma Lee Loy, will add one more recognition to the list of facilities named after her and awards she received.
Approved May 26 by the Florida Historical Marker Council, the marker is one of 12 celebrating women “whose achievements transformed their communities and, in many cases, the nation itself,” according to the Florida Women’s Historical Marker Initiative. She is the only woman on the Treasure Coast selected to be one of the 12.
While Gov. Ron DeSantis unveils statues around Florida of presidents and other historical figures ahead of the country’s 250th birthday, the Florida Women’s Historical Marker Initiative is honoring women “whose contributions helped shape Florida’s civic, educational, athletic, environmental, architectural, aviation, and cultural history,” according to the organization.
Loy’s historical marker will be at the Indian River County Chamber of Commerce, 1216 21st St., in Vero Beach. A date has not been set for its unveiling. The marker is to be 42 inches wide and 30 inches tall, on a 6-foot pole.
Who was the ‘First Lady of Vero Beach’?
Ten years after the founding of Vero Beach in 1919, Alma Lee Loy was born June 10, 1929. She was a 1947 Vero Beach High School graduate and had a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Miami.
After saving enough money writing for the Vero Beach Press Journal as one of the state’s first female sports columnists, she partnered with Lucy Pope Auxier to open Alma Lee’s children’s clothing store along State Road 60 in 1955.
She expanded her leadership into the Vero Beach and Indian River County Chamber of Commerce when she became its first female president in 1963.
The first woman in many leadership positions, Loy often stood out as a founding member of local development initiatives. She was a founding member of the Vero Beach City Recreation Board, charter member of the Vero Beach Downtown Merchants Association and founding co-chairman of the Environmental Learning Center, to name a few.
In 1968 she became the first woman on the Indian River County Commission, later becoming the first female chairman of the commission and one of the first women in Florida to lead a county commission.
Her support for bettering the quality of life in her community was evident since those days at the clothing store where, during the 70’s, she helped raise $300,000 for the building of a facility in Vero Beach which now stands as Leisure Square on 17th Street.
A lifetime of awards
Loy’s awards go back to 1961 when she received the Woman of the Year recognition by the Safety Crusader awards form the Indian River Safety Council. She was also honored with the Safety Crusader award form the Indian River Safety Council in 1975.
Her devotion to Vero Beach was present throughout the city like the 17th Street Bridge she helped ensure was built in 1979 and was later named after her in 2012. The same bridge was lined by flags and pink ribbons when she died from complications of pneumonia on Good Friday, April 10, 2020.
“For a small lady, she was enormous,” former Vero Beach Mayor Tony Young said at a 2022 memorial for Loy, two years after her death. “Over the course of 90 years-plus, her stature always increased in the hearts of those who knew her.”
Loy was also honored by Vero Beach with a parade leading from the Heritage Center to the chamber building where her name was unveiled over the eastern entrance, distinguishing it as the Alma Lee Loy Building on Nov. 30, 2010.
Loy was also named grand marshal during the city’s centennial celebration parade in 2019. At 90 years old, she served on the Three Corners Steering committee the year of her passing, recommending possible uses for former infrastructure.
A champion of the creation and upgrading of parks, she supported Indian River County’s purchase of the 35-acre former Dodgertown Golf Club in Vero Beach in 2018. It is now a public, passive-recreation space connected to the Jackie Robinson Training Complex, the former Dodgertown.
In 1964, Loy was recognized statewide as an original member of the Florida Commission on the Status of Women. The year after, she was appointed to the Florida Association of Women’s Safety Leaders.
In 2018 she received the Florida “Spirit of Community” award for being a positive role model for women and girls. Seven months after her death in 2020, she was inducted into the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame for her contributions to the quality-of-life improvement in her community.
The 11 other women honored with markers
Alachua County, Ruth Alexander — University of Florida faculty member credited with founding the Lady Gators and advancing women’s athletics.Broward County, Chris Evert — International tennis champion whose 89.96% singles winning percentage remains the highest in modern-era professional tennis.Citrus County, Helen Digges Spivey — Environmental advocate known as ‘The Manatee Lady’ for her efforts protecting Florida’s manatees and springs.Escambia County, Jacqueline Cochran — Record-breaking aviator who directed the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during World War II.Miami-Dade County, Marion Manley — Pioneering architect and one of Florida’s first licensed female architects whose work helped shape modern South Florida and the University of Miami campus.Monroe County, Barbara Mabrity — Longtime Key West lighthouse keeper who endured multiple devastating hurricanes while safeguarding one of Florida’s most important navigational beacons.Nassau County, Chloe Merrick Reed — Abolitionist educator who taught formerly-enslaved children on Amelia Island after the Civil War.Okaloosa County, Sarah “Aunt Francis” Brooks Pryor — Fort Walton Beach postmaster, teacher, midwife, and civic advocate appointed by President Woodrow Wilson.Okeechobee County, Margaret “Tantie” Huckabee — Pioneer educator who taught in a one-room palmetto-thatched schoolhouse during Florida’s early frontier era.Osceola County, Minnie Moore Wilson — Seminole advocate and author who helped secure land protections for the Seminole Tribe of Florida.Volusia County, Mary McLeod Bethune — Educator, presidential advisor, and founder of Bethune-Cookman University.
Adrian Jimenez-Morales is a reporter for TCPalm/ Treasure Coast Newspapers. You can reach him at adrian.jimenez@tcpalm.com.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Florida woman commemorated with historical marker in Vero Beach
Reporting by Adrian Jimenez Morales, Colleen Wixon and C. A. Bridges, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
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