St. Lucie News Tribune du lieu suivant : Fort Pierce, Florida • 58

Sundfly May 16 1982 Treasure Coast SHOWCASE Dorothy Binney Palmer died last Sunday at the age of S3 in her beloved home Im-mo-ko-lee Her passing will be mourned outside the family circle by longtime Fort Pierce residents touched by her generosity and awed by her legend In recent weeks lira Palmer agreed to be the subject of an article by her granddaughter Cynthia Putnam-Trefelner for Inclusion in an upcoming edition of The News Tribune's Sunday magazine featuring Casa Caprona Album" a historical focus on "high in the 1930s Rather than hold the story for that June Issue of Treasure Coast SHOWCASE we are publishing It today JULIE ENDERS AIR PLANTS AND SPANISH MOSS She climbed the tallest mountain forged widest rivers lived the Impossible dream til the end of World Wu I while George became hud of the GP and the firm that his grandfather for whom he was named had founded For the next decade society and its greatest leaders and heroes alike became theirs Their unique home in Rye New York (designed by Dorothy) served hotel to the world Lindberg Beebe Roosevelt were more than guests They were friends Amelia Earhart dedicated her first book to "Dorothy Binney Putnam under whom roof this wu written" couple to witness the American project (It wu then completed in 1914) After returning to the United States the young marrieds moved to the far west town of Bend Oregon Two years earlier George Putnam had arrived literally by stagecoach to the area and purchased a newspaper called the Bend Bulletin They built the business from a twice-a-month publication to a dally George Palmer Putnam "GP" became one of the youngest mayors elected he would say the other fellow fell out of an upstairs window" IN THE YEARS that followed he and the rbbecame involved in water and land fights between the business" and farmer GP's influence brought attention to the Governor and he wu asked to By CYNTHIA PUTNAM-TREFELNER Special to Showcase Im-mo-ko-lee pronounced as it is spelled was built by a woman of considerable foresight and spirit remembered as a tan slim woman with a loose free-swinging walk a natural athlete Her eyes were blue and keen and the twinkle was never far from the surface "I told someone once that I was a farmer" said Mrs Palmer recently when he first arrived here he was surprised to see that I wu not sitting out on the porch peeling potatoes! Affectionately nicknamed by her family and friends she wu indeed a Until her 90th year she single-handedly ran an 80-acre citrus grove in west St Lucie County But the real story is about the lady herself the grand lady of ANOTHER SON George Palmer Putnam Jr wu born in 1921 Divorce prompted Dorothy Putnam's move to' Florida eight yean later Edwin and Alice Binney Dorothy's parents had for several yean a home in BETTER TO HAVE LOVED Do not let beloved ghosts return to find that thoughts of them have brought us tears Let the dear memories glow and brightly bum Like friendly flames that banish from the years Our dark regrets Let each remembered one Shape on our lips our fondest gallant smile To say as they would wish not "You are gone" But "It was sweet to have you for this By Don Bianding from "FLORIDAYS" Dedicated to Dorothy Binney Palmer Raised in Old Greenwich Connecticut the former Dorothy Binney moved to Florida following a whirlwind life being married to New York publisher and ex- Jlorer George aimer Putnam They first met college students whUe climbing Mt Whitney the highest peak in the continental United Statu Each year hundreds of different speciu nest and rest among the gnat oaks The local Audubon Society chapter guided by Mrs Palmer since its beginning continues to hold a yearly bird count there IM-MO-KO-LEE hu served as home 7 to not only her two sons eight grand-- children seventeen greatgrandchildren and one great-greatgrandchild but to all who were ever in need of comfort drink or roof' During World Wu it wu an "mien for the sailors of the United Statu Navy based here in Fort Pierce 1 Over 2000 (enlisted men) were guests and hundreds of men learned to swim in hu pool I would think one-half of my generation one time or another spent at least one after- noon of fun swimming in that populu pool "Most of my grandchildren could swim before they could walk" noted Mrs Palmer BECAUSE SHE recognized the importance of survival in a water-based state the Fort Pierce YMCA hu the -Dorothy Binney Palmer pool to teach young children how to swim As an ichthyologist she made the oceanographic trip to the Galapagos Islands with William Beebe her job to catch and identify the fish the old floating laboratory a remodelled hate freighter dredged the bot- i its topographical survey tor ocean currents And snakes too were something to be learned and studied "NO ONE COULD tell me the difference between the poisonous and good she continued "so I learned about them Cages and other remnants of the in- quiring mind fill the house not surprisingly became an authority on snakes and her journals and articles educated the state Abo an authority on plants and treu she uw the need for a Garden Club here and so in 1931 -she established one She served president for 24 years and hu exhibits were blue-ribboned all over the state Tops would be the 1939 Fair blue ribbon for an arrangement titled Summer" MRS PALMER (she retained the name of hu fourth husband -the late Lewis Palmer) wu also one of the (Continued on Page I) PUTNAM- TREFELNER UPON HER GRADUATION from Wellesley in 1910 Dorothy Binney and George Palmer Putnam were married in her family home Their honeymoon trip lasted nearly a year while they wrote and traveled about Central America The subsequent book The Northland of South America wu a school text for several years following its publication It wu on this trip that Dorothy Putnam became the first woman to climb the highest peak in Central America Mt Acatenango St Lucie County called Florindia (Local attorney Richard Neill and his family now live there) So it wu a familiar place of refuge when Dorothy and her two sons moved south in 1930 She later sought to build her own home in a Seminole hammock first went out with machetes" she recalled "and the first thing I did wu mark all the trees that were to be saved" "It wu a fight to have the house built I knew it could she continued "THEY SAID I wu crazy to have an upstairs porch (loggia) and to have fireplaces built diagonally in the corner of a roan" "I knew it could be done and look around there are That loggia wu an added bonus At 93 years of age she could still be "outside" without the effort of tackling the stairs Birds especially the painted and indigo buntings have Maned the safety harbor of Im-mo-ko-lee serve Lieutenant-Governor of the state of Oregon It wu then that the Woman Suffrage movement finally won the battle for equal voting rights and with the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920 Dorothy Binney Putnam became the second woman to vote in the West (The wife wu the first) A son David Binney Putnam wu born in 1913 and a life full of gaiety music challenge and a love for the great outdoors kept the family together exploring and basking in admiration for nature's wonders Then a call from home had them return East GP WAS NEEDED in the publishing house following the death of his unde George Haven Putnam Continuing in the family publishing business wu essential to the Putnam family and so the family returned to New York Dorothy worked in Washington DC un- THEY VISITED the Panama Canal while it wu still a swamp land of rustic ent left over from an unsuc- attempt by the French government to build the canal CoL George Goethals a personal friend of the Putnam family nad invited the honeymoon a.