Despite their disparate backgrounds, the lives of the three ladies who spoke last Thursday evening at a Voices of Eve event at Raw Space have become intertwined over the years through their love for one another and their shared commitment to the wellbeing of the community.
Alma Lee Loy, Leonor Lobo de Gonzalez and Lenora Williams were invited by organizers Neli Santamarina and Lu French to share their experiences during a discussion on the History of Women in Indian River County.
Their words will become the foreword for an upcoming Faces of Eve coffee table book featuring 140 headshots of local women shot by photographer Niurka Barroso. Her photographic mural project was the inspiration for the Faces of Eve Collaborative. A future discussion with some of the youngest women in the mural will form the book’s afterword.
“This event is our first Voices of Eve event,” said Santamarina, noting that upcoming talks and lectures will focus on issues that pertain to the “wellbeing and empowerment of women.”
Santamarina, French and members of the collaborative’s steering committee posed questions of the ladies, ranging from their first memories of life in Vero Beach to their hopes for the future.
Loy is renowned for her dedication to the town in which she was born and where, with the exception of college, she has resided all of her 90 years.
“To me, that’s one of the most precious things I have. That I have lived in this community and worked in this community and strived to help it be the place that everybody wants to come to,” said Loy. She added that hardly a day goes without someone mentioning their experiences at Alma Lee’s Children’s Clothing Store, which she ran for 42 years with partner Lucy Auxier.
Gonzalez said that destiny, and Fidel Castro, had a hand in her arrival to “a swamp called the Moorings” in 1971 with husband Jorge and son Boris, then age 12, as Cuban exiles. Harassment by an individual there almost caused them to leave until Jorge met then-County Commissioner Loy, who she said “gave him expert advice on how to handle the situation. And then he said, ‘We’re staying in Vero Beach,’” recalled Gonzalez.
Although not initially happy about remaining here, she took a position at Saint Edward’s School and quickly became involved in the community. “I can tell you, 48 years later, I would not live anywhere else on earth,” said Gonzalez, adding, “So thank you, thank you, thank you, Alma Lee Loy.”
“I’ve been quite a few places and I’ve worked for a lot of people, but Vero Beach is the best place in the world,” said Williams, who will celebrate her centennial birthday in December. Born near Tallahassee, Williams was employed at one point by Loy, and was the beloved employee for many years of Vero’s first doctor, Dr. John P. Gifford, and his family; members of which still call her on a weekly basis.
A video of the discussion is available on the Faces of Eve Facebook page.
Photos by: Denise Ritchie
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