2022
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In a year in which the region has been battered by not one but three variants of the coronavirus, it is comforting to hear about the resilience of local merchants in the face of challenges to their livelihoods.
In fact, many downtown Fort Pierce business owners remain profitable and are looking forward to better times ahead.
Pictures of an exhibition with love
Over the years, I’ve been astounded at the number of people who have said they were students of the landscape painter A.E. “Bean’’ Backus. Some of them were indeed what you might call students, while others had only met him a few times or perhaps not at all.
I was reminded of this while reading Ellen Gillette’s profile on painter Jackie Schindehette. I had the privilege of knowing Bean from about 1969 to his death in 1990, and I can attest that Jackie, who spent a decade painting with Bean, was a bona fide student.
By way of background, Bean was the first native Floridian to popularize South Florida landscapes. Before him, there was only Winslow Homer, who occasionally visited Florida and who focused...
As St. Lucie County integrated public schools in the 1970-71 school year, it went from two high schools, one for blacks and one for whites, to a single new one, Fort Pierce Central High School
Even before the school opened for classes, its football team [75 percent black and 25 percent white] was on the practice field creating what would soon be a powerhouse.
Outside of the practice field where players and coaches were aware of an abundance of talent, there was little reason to expect that the new Fort Pierce Central Fighting Cobras would be anything special.
The men who built the first St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Fort Pierce in 1902 could not possibly have imagined that the little chapel they crafted would one day cast off to sea.
The story of this peripatetic chapel is so unique that it made headlines in Life magazine and The New York Times, as well as in newspapers as far away as London. The reason for all this interest was the fact that St. Andrew’s took to the water, the Indian River Lagoon, to be exact, on its way to becoming Holy Apostles Episcopal Church in Satellite Beach.
The past couple of years have been extremely challenging for everyone and navigating life in a pandemic has been no easier on those who don’t have a voice. Those who died from the coronavirus often left behind beloved pets that had been their constant companions. When people lost their jobs, not only did it become a struggle to feed themselves, but often their pets suffered from scarcity and shortage, too.
Beefing up businessSince Alto Adams Sr. first purchased ranch land on western Orange Avenue in St. Lucie County in 1937, the place has been a constant hive of innovation.
Judge Adams insisted on breeding his cattle the old-fashioned, natural way — using little to no chemicals. His son, Alto Jr. [Bud] expanded that approach exponentially, putting Adams Ranch on the map for ultrasustainable farming and breeding methods.
Breanna Myles put St. Lucie County on the map when she was crowned Miss Teen USA during the 39th Miss Teen USA pageant held in November in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She had won the Miss Florida Teen USA title earlier in the year that parlayed her into the final completion with state winners from around the nation.
In 1980, Jackie Schindehette was a homemaker in Fort Pierce who had never picked up a brush or palette knife. She never planned to. Until one special day.
Born and raised in Miami, Schindehette sometimes asked her father to help her illustrate reports for school. Only recently did she discover that he had illustrated his high school yearbook.
Famed author Zora Neale Hurston and renowned Zora scholar Marvin Hobson were born in different generations and different parts of the country. In fact, Hobson never even heard of the author responsible for such classics as Their Eyes Were Watching God and Dust Tracks on a Road until he was well into his 20s.
But anyone who knows anything about Hurston knows that when she wanted something, she usually got it. Maybe that’s how fate connected both educators through time and space to find a forever home in Fort Pierce.
Allison O’Connor was teaching high school and loved educating young minds, but she felt she wasn’t fulfilling her biggest dreams, which were far more entrepreneurial than teaching would ever allow.
The Vero Beach native who has lived on the Treasure Coast her entire life always enjoyed working in the restaurant industry and had spent much of her childhood in her grandparents’ kitchen watching them cook and learning from them. When an opportunity arose to join forces with three of her closest friends and fellow foodies, O’Connor didn’t think twice before redesigning her dream.
On the weekends, boaters flock to The Cove by the hundreds for some fun in the sun. Dynamite Point, a name from when the U.S. Navy trained its frogmen on North Hutchinson Island, is at the entrance to The Cove from the Fort Pierce Inlet. During low tide, boaters can moor their boats in the shallow water or beach them on the sand to enjoy swimming and picnicking.
© 2022 Fort Pierce Magazine | Indian River Magazine, Inc.
