A Bit of Clearwater Beach HistoryBy Anne McKay Garris
Clearwater said goodbye, this week, to a lady who was a part of Clearwater Beach for most of her life. Ethel Crown Palmer, a resident of Eldorado Avenue, died Friday, June 29, 2007. "She never wanted to sit and stare at the four walls," said her neighbor, Andy Ayo. So, after a career as wife, mother, accountant at several businesses, and a stint in the Woman's Army Corps during World War II, Ethel settled into making people welcome to Clearwater Beach from behind the counter at Clearwater's Beach Welcome Center located at Big Pier 60. She was a favorite with the vendors at Sunsets At Pier Sixty. On one occasion there was much consternation when Ethel tripped over a carelessly placed rug and fell face down in the sand. The vendors hastened to help her up and were relieved to find her, bruised and sandy, but taking it all in her stride. Being covered with sand was not unusual for this devotee of Clearwater Beach. The year Clearwater Beach was named number two in the nation, it seemed only natural that eighty-three-year-old Ethel be poster girl for a Travel Channel feature of Clearwater Beach. Ethel not only narrated much of the lively video, she was photographed at her beachside home on Eldorado, in the Gulf and at other places in the community she loved. "She loved talking about Clearwater Beach with the people who came to the Welcome Center," said her son, Sam Palmer. "And, if they asked about the history of the Beach, she enjoyed sharing that with them." Ethel's family came to Clearwater from Gainesville by train when she was three-years-old. Clearwater Beach was connected to the mainland by an old wooden bridge. What streets it had were brick or sand and there were few houses, surrounded by water, palmettos and sandspurs. In fact, during the thirties and forties, much of South Clearwater Beach was still under water, waiting to be pumped up. One of Ethel's favorite stories was about being part of the dedication ceremonies of the original Memorial Causeway and bridge when she was six-years-old. In honor of this, she was invited to be a part of the dedication ceremonies for the newest Memorial Causeway Bridge just a few years ago. "She led the inaugural run over the new bridge -- in a golf cart, of course," supplies her son. Ethel's love of the outdoors extended well beyond Clearwater Beach to Florida's wilderness areas. As an active member of the Suncoast Chapter of the Florida Trail Association, Ethel held most of the offices of the organization at one time or another. She also participated in the up-keep and creating of trails in Florida's parks and forests, wielding a machete along with those much younger -- camping in the wilderness -- and rejoicing in the "real Florida" as they call it in the tourist literature. At the end, Ethel got her wish to pass quietly away at her home beside the Gulf of Mexico, leaving behind a legacy of sharing the beauty of Florida with residents and visitors alike. |