VERO BEACH — It would seem unlikely that there is anyone in Vero Beach who does not know the name Alma Lee Loy. Soft spoken and gently assertive, Loy’s entire life has been dedicated to the enrichment of the town where she was born. Innumerable tributes, including the newly renamed Alma Lee Loy Bridge, are testament to a lifetime of achievements.
The accolades continued Saturday night as an overflow crowd packed the landmark Heritage Center for the annual Pioneer Family Dinner, which recognizes the contributions of early Indian River County residents. The Loy and Guy families were honored this year, and she was quick to point out that the attention should focus on her entire family.
“This is about our parents; my mother and father and Tom’s mother and father,” said Loy, referencing Tom Guy, married to Alma Lee’s younger sister Gwen. “Tom’s parents actually came here before ours. The thrust of the whole thing is about the early days of Vero Beach; particularly 14th Avenue.”
“They met in Ft. Pierce,” said Alma Lee of her parents Vi (Viola) and George Loy. “Daddy came from New York to Fort Pierce to work for Mr. I. M. Waters. Mother was in high school when they met. Music was the common thread between them.”
The couple married in 1928, and moved to Vero Beach where he eventually purchased the I.M. Waters Men’s Haberdashery and changed the name to Loy’s Men’s Wear.
Son George, Jr. and daughter Alma Lee continued the family retail tradition, he working at Loy’s until his death in 1979 and she devoting her early career to Alma Lee’s Children’s Clothing Center. George Jr. and his wife Jessie had two daughters; Gwenda Lee Loy, a Vero Beach resident and Laura Ann Daily, living in Alabama.
The Guy family joined the Loy family through the 1961 marriage of Tom Guy and Gwen Loy, who still live in Vero Beach. Tom Guy worked as a pharmacist with McClure Drugs and Indian River Memorial Hospital for many years. His brother Herb, Jr. had a distinguished career with the Department of Defense, and resides in Michigan with wife Virginia.
Although frailer than her sister, Gwen Guy showed the same quick wit when saying of Vero Beach, “I’ve seen it grow up to be a very nice community; not a small dinky town. It’s because of people like my sister that everything in Vero Beach is so nice. I’m very, very proud of my sister for all the things she’s done for this community all her life.”
Their daughter Robyn Guy gave a presentation on the Guy family, which moved to Vero Beach from Missouri in 1921, that included a related history through siblings and marriage of the Evans and Beindorf families.
“The early settlers of Vero Beach came with great expectations,” said Alma Lee Loy. “They were risk takers, they were courageous, they were true pioneers. Their goals and motives were to build a future for their family. This was accomplished thru hard work – daylight to dusk, helping their neighbors, building lives on values through their churches, schools, and business community. As members of the second generation, my sister and I, with the Guy boys, are so grateful our parents chose to make their homes in Vero Beach.”
Previous honorees were the Sexton, Schumann, Michael, MacWilliam, Graves, Helseth, Vocelle, Zeuch, Cox/Gifford, Holman, Carter and Schlitt families.
Elizabeth Graves Bass, Heritage Center board president, announced that the Kennedy family will be honored as the 2013 Pioneer Family.
