COVER STORY
the greasepaint and sawdust, dying at the age of 59 in 1936.
Her name still brings a glimmer of recognition from longtime
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area residents, however. Zora’s fame may have been
more fleeting than the other Zora, (Zora Neale Hurston, the
writer) who also lived in Fort Pierce, but
Lucia Zora’s life is at least as intriguing.
CARD FIRST
Who was she?
She began life as Lucia Card,
born May 20, 1877, in Cazenovia,
N.Y., the daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Milton E. Card. In the book
she wrote about her life, “Sawdust
and Solitude,” published
by Little, Brown and Co. in 1924,
she writes that she was named for
a tramp steamer sitting in Boston
harbor as her father returned home
from an Arctic trip in order to be at
her birth. It is more likely, however,
that she was named after her grandmother
Lucia.
In 1882, five years after her
birth, the Cards bought property
along the Indian River, perhaps at
the suggestion of another Cazenovia
resident, Peter P. Cobb. Card
and his wife, Myra (Dey Bascom),
became early local pioneers, planting
pineapples along a wide swath
of land by the Indian River. Their
daughter spent little time in Fort
Pierce. She was left in New York to be educated at the Cazenovia
Seminary, at that time a nonsectarian boarding school
that encouraged co-education.
REBELLIOUS ‘TOMBOY’
In her words, she was a “tomboy,” who rebelled against
her “average conservative American home.” She was musical
and could sing, but she dismissed that talent. “I studied,”
she writes. “…but with never a thought of using that voice
beyond speaking.”
In 1898, she spent time in Fort Pierce, staying with her
mother at a camp on the Card property they called “El Selva,”
or “The Jungle.” She occasionally entertained “the elite”
of the pioneers, according to newspaper reports, as a “costume
impersonator.” The locals were no doubt enthralled by
the 21-year-old woman, who by all accounts was extremely
beautiful and had already begun using her exotic stage name,
Lucia Zora.
“…The curtain went up and divinely fair stood the beautiful
Mademoiselle Zora,” a newspaper said. She so captivated
the audience with her song that she raised $137.25, nearly
$3,500 in today’s dollars. She turned it over to the “shell road
committee” to build the first roads in Fort Pierce.
The local newspaper raved about another performance that
showed where her sympathies lay in the Spanish-American
War. Zora, dressed in a costume made from the Cuban flag,
sang and danced to the song, “Cuban Captive,” against a backdrop
of palm trees and two crossed “shining machetes” along
with a banner emblazoned with the words, “Cuba Libre.”
“The entertainment at the city hall last Friday was a grand success…
Mademoiselle Zora was greeted with rounds of applause,
showing how popular this beautiful young actress has become,
her part of the programme being carried out to perfection.”
ST. LUCIE COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM
Milton and Myra Card pose for a photo with workers on their pineapple plantation.
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This pineapple on a column
of the historic Card home
recalls the estate’s days as a
pineapple plantation.