LaPorte Farms has become a Roseland destination, a 5-acre spread at the end of 129th Street, with horses, ducks, geese, monkeys, parrots, swans, a zebra, a miniature bull, a butterfly garden, fish pond, and much more. Families can enjoy a walking tour and weddings, parties, picnics and school trips happen there all the time.
Owner Laura LaPorte can usually be found sitting on the broad porch of her lovely, rustic ranch house, facing the pond, greeting visitors and simply enjoying life.
But life for LaPorte has not always been so blissful. In fact, her story is the stuff of which TV miniseries are made, a story of hard times, pain, tragedy and, ultimately, of survival – a testimony to the perseverance, determination and toughness of a Florida girl who time and time again overcame daunting odds, refused to give up and, ultimately, prevailed.
Born in North Miami Beach to Bill and Roberta Lathero, Laura moved with her folks to Fellsmere when she was three. She was the only girl, holding her own with brothers Billy, Bobby, Jimmy, Mike, Shelley and Richard.
“When I was a kid we had horses, and rented them out. My dad worked at Piper, then mom and dad bought 10 acres. Around sixty-three or sixty-four we had a riding stable – Lathero Farms – with 40 horses, at one point.”
Growing up, Laura was always right there with her brothers as they worked alongside their dad, baling and loading hay, helping with the horses. “We were all taught to drive the tractor and trucks.” (To this day, Laura can drive pretty much any type of vehicle, handling her 36-foot-long horse trailer as if it were a compact car.)
“Dad built a barn and we did riding lessons, trail rides, hay rides, tours – and – we had about 300 hogs.” She makes a face. “We’d go pick up the hog slop every week from various restaurants along Ocean Drive – Bobby’s, the Holiday Inn and others. Then we’d cook it and slop the hogs.”
“All our friends loved to come out there,” she recalls. “It was nothing to have 20-25 kids staying over the weekend. And in the morning we all had to rise and shine and work, they were no different than us. Daddy was tough – got the whip crackin’ – but we had lots of fun. Great memories.”
Laura married in 1971 and had two sons, Troy in 1972, and Justin in 1976. They lived in the country, and Laura worked for Gulf Western driving an 1175 Case tractor, mowing in the orange groves.
“I was lovin’ life, enjoying nature.”
Then tragedy struck. By 1976, Laura’s folks ran a hay and feed business in Fellsmere and bought and sold animals. They were driving a big rig near Ocala, hauling a 30-foot horse trailer loaded with goats, when the brakes failed. The three boys who were with them survived, but Bill, 42, and Roberta, 36, were killed.
Laura was 17. “I was married, but my brothers were alone.” She still gets emotional when she remembers, “My brother raised themselves. I can’t imagine how hard it was for them, at such a young age to lose both parents. It was hard for me, but I was married. I’m just so proud of them. Mom and Dad raised us to take care of ourselves. They said you have to work to get anything.” The brothers have been able to make lives for themselves, and most remain in the area.
Laura moved to Vero Beach and, in 1977, took a job with the local newspaper. Before her parents’ deaths, she had begun to have trouble raising her arms, and her Dad had urged her to get checked. When she finally did, in 1978, she was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy. “The doctor told me my life expectancy was 10 years.”
Laura sought a second opinion, seeing physicians at the Watson Clinic in Lakeland, then Shands at the University of Florida in Gainesville and the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. They all confirmed the devastating diagnosis, and the disease, for which there is no cure, relentlessly continued its crippling course. “I was fortunate that I did not drink or smoke or do drugs. All the doctors would tell me, ‘You’re in good shape for the shape you’re in.’ “
Laura and her brothers endured yet another tragedy in 1981, when their 17-year-old brother Jimmy was killed in an accident near Fellsmere.
Divorced from her sons’ father in 1983, Laura moved to Roseland in 1986 and left her newspaper job in 1990. She worked at various things, buying and selling cars, goats, chickens – determined to move forward. “There’s no time in life to feel sorry for yourself. Mom and Dad raised us to survive. The kids today,” she shakes her head, “if their parents were to die, would have no idea how to really get out there, to work, to survive, to take care of themselves. My brothers literally ate off the land.”
In 1993, she married David LaPorte and moved to Vero Beach briefly before purchasing the property where LaPorte Farms is today, just next door to her previous Roseland home. They started going to auctions and flea markets, buying and selling animals, and building quite a menagerie.
One day a customer at the Melbourne Flea Market mentioned to Laura that “you’ve got more animals than the Brevard Zoo. Did you ever think of taking them around to schools, day cares, retirement homes?”
Laura hadn’t, but she loved the idea. She put a brochure together and mailed it out to schools, day care centers and retirement homes. “I got five calls in the first week.” Soon she was hauling her mobile petting farm all over the county: there were chickens, a bottle calf, ducks, goats, geese and turkeys.
Then a lady called and asked if Laura had a pony she could bring to her daughter’s birthday. Laura didn’t, but she told the lady she’d call her back. She immediately called her brother who had a Shetland pony. “I need to buy your pony,” she told him. He agreed and she bought Molly and made it to the birthday party just in time.
Molly the pony was loved by hundreds of children, giving rides at events all over the county for 15 years. “After a while,” Laura says, “Molly became a union girl. If she felt she’d done enough for the day, she’s just lie down. We had a rooster named Sir Richard who liked to ride on Molly’s back. They were quite a pair.” The little golden pony, she said sadly, died recently at the age of 37.
Laura conducted summer camps, gave riding lessons and grew her business, getting a kick out of welcoming the children of kids she had taught in past sunny summers at the ranch. She has always been, and remains, active in the Roseland Community she loves, serving as President of the Roseland Property Owners Association for seven years and, recently, starting a Neighborhood Watch program.
It became harder and harder to get around MS progressed, severely limiting the use of her arms, but Laura refused to give in to it, counting her blessings every morning, as she had done for years.
Then, in October 1999, in an ironic twist of fate, Laura was gravely injured while driving a friend’s van, when it was T-boned by a Florida Department of Agriculture employee, at 66th Avenue and 69th Street. While she escaped death, the accident severely damaged both legs and left her permanently crippled. Another challenging chapter in her life had begun. Laura underwent numerous surgeries, spending the best part of the next three years in hospitals and doctors’ offices, the last bout in 2007.
There was never any question that the accident was the fault of the state employee, but State Statutes relating to sovereign immunity limited the amount the state would have to pay unless the Legislature specifically chose to award more. Laura’s medical costs had already far exceeded that amount.
Undaunted, she contacted her state senator and representative. A bill was written for her, which would award her appropriate compensation, but it languished in committee year after year. Doggedly determined, Laura travelled to Tallahassee every week during the 2007-2008 Legislative session, attending every single day. “I spoke to EVERY Senator and Representative!”
For nine years, Laura fought the state, to no avail. Then, through the efforts of Gov. Charlie Crist and local Representative Stan Mayfield, she won.
“Even as he fought his battle with cancer, Stan Mayfield fought my battle.” And at last, Laura’s bill passed.
She got the long-awaited news of her victory April 29, 2008. “For years, I carried around a folded-up picture of an outdoor fireplace, from Southern Living Magazine. It was a dream of mine. I called a stone mason.” Today, the 17-foot-long stone fireplace is a much-used focal point of her wide porch.
“I told my horses if mom every gets anything from this, I’m building you a nice barn!” She called the contractor June 3 – and refurbished the barn.
In the ensuing years, Laura has created a wonderful environment, expanding and updated the buildings; she built a magical butterfly house, added a pool, and a bridge over the pond. And she loves nothing more than sharing it all, seeing people enjoy LaPorte Farms as much as she does. Visitors can tour, or fish the pond.
“If someone wants to just come out and relax and read. . . . we have weddings here, birthday parties, and at Christmas we have a big open house, we put up 100,000 lights! I’ve been able to make this into something I can share with the Community.”
She deals with the limitations of her body, and the constant pain, but doesn’t dwell on it or use it as an excuse. Far from it, she continues to get up every morning with a big “Thank you!” She now must use a walker all the time, and drives her golf cart around the property. From time to time, she has taken a fall, and highly praises the county emergency crews she has grown to know well. “They really go above and beyond!”
“One time, the doc told me I should get rid of my animals.” She laughs at the absurd idea. “He didn’t realize these animals are my therapy. People can say what they will about animals, but without them I wouldn’t have survived. They know my good days and my bad days. If I have a bad day, I just feed the geese and the swans.”
As she sits on her porch sharing her story, her dog snuggling her feet, a mom, dad and little girl who have just finished the Farm walking tour wave. “Bye, bye, Miss Laura! We loved it!” they call.
“Thank ya’ll. Ya’ll come back now,” she hollars, always the Florida country girl.
“If I die tomorrow, I’ve got everything I could ever want.”
For more information on LaPorte Farms visit www.laportefarms.com or call 772-633-0813.