recalled the water being so high, she had fishing boats
tied to the front of her porch. In 1935, when Clara
and Dunk were living in Placida, another hurricane
came through with wind speeds of up to 200 mph.
While the Florida Keys took a mighty hit and
hundreds of lives were lost, Gasparilla Island and
Placida were primarily spared any
great damage. It was still a scary
one, though.
“The house floated up off its
blocks and set right down again,”
she recalled. “It was bobbing
around like a cork.”
Asked how the world differed
in 1989 in comparison to when
she was young Clara said, “There
was more love in the world back
then. More brotherly and sisterly love for one’s
neighbors ... people today seem to be more alone.”
Asked for her recipe in raising good children Clara
said, “I always lived a good life in front of my children.
I never smoked or drank or went to a bar. I stayed
home and devoted my life to my husband and to my
children. I felt it was my duty.”
She added, “If you lead a good clean life and set a
good example, they can’t point a finger at Mama later
on. I just want to leave good memories for my kids.
They say I’m an old fogey, and I guess I am. I just want
to do right. I was always a believer
that charity begins at
home.”
Dunk passed away
in 1973, and Clara
passed in May of
1997, but their stories
still live on thanks to
our tiny island and the
people who fondly
remember them.
raised in her lifetime. In one interview she tried
to remember.
“We adopted Kitty, one of Edith’s daughters,
and we raised lots of grandchildren and other
children, too.”
It was frequent in those days for a child to stay
with friends or extended family for
quite awhile if they were having
family issues, or their parents
had to go somewhere out of
town. Sometimes for school
purposes they would stay with
a family closer to where they
attended, and they would only
see their real family on the
weekends, if at all.
When asked at the age of 89,
Clara couldn’t even give a concise number of
grandchildren she had, much less how many she
had taken under her wing throughout the years.
“I just know I have about as many ‘greats’ as I have
‘grands,’” she laughed.
Clara was quite proud of at least one thing
she accomplished during the latter part of her
life. She, with the help of Sally Jones (then
superintendent of schools), convinced the
school board to send the school bus to Placida
to pick up the children and take them to school
in Englewood. Prior to that, the bus only came
south as far as the Dixon property, now known
as Eldred’s Marina, located at the mouth of the
Boca Grande Causeway.
Around 1959 the family moved to Grove City,
where they built a house on Placida Road. At
that time, Clara said, you couldn’t see a light anywhere
at night from their front porch as there
were that few people who lived around them.
Still interested in schooling, Clara accomplished
another important step in improving the
educational system after she moved to Grove
City – she started the first lunchroom at the old
Englewood school.
“It was just a big ol’ kerosene stove to cook a
hot soup for the kids,” she recalled. She was the
cook, and she rode back and forth to school with
the kids every day on the bus to make sure they
could all eat a hot lunch.
Clara and her family survived two terrible
hurricanes during their time together on and
around Gasparilla Island. In 1921 those living on
the island proper were spared, but most of the
homes on Cole Island were washed away. Clara G
M
“There was more love in
the world back then. More
brotherly and sisterly love
for neighbors ... people
today seem to be more
alone.”
Clara Futch