Many people had described the Everglades as a swamp. Marjory Stoneman Douglas described it as a river — and the name stuck.
At a glance
- Born: April 7, 1890, Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Education: Wellesley College
- Came to Miami: 1915, to work for her father at the Miami Herald
- Best known for: The Everglades: River of Grass (1947; revised edition 1987)
- Founded: Friends of the Everglades, 1970 (the date given by the National Park Service)
- Died: May 14, 1998, aged 108
The writer
At the Herald she moved from society reporting to the editorial page and then to a career as an independent writer, taking up feminism, racial justice and conservation. The National Park Service calls The Everglades: River of Grass, published the same year the park was dedicated, “the definitive description” of the place she spent her life protecting.
The advocate
Douglas took part in the 1930 congressional inspection of the proposed park. Decades later, as canals and water-control projects of the mid-twentieth century reshaped the region, she became one of their most determined critics. She formed Friends of the Everglades in 1970 to build public and voting support for protecting the system. (Some sources give the founding year as 1969; we follow the National Park Service.)
In 1993 she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She died at her Coconut Grove home in 1998 at the age of 108.