I was born in Pittsburgh, PA and moved to Florida in 1971, where I worked as a paralegal in Miami, Pensacola, St. Petersburg and Orlando. My husband, Roy A. Walters, and I moved to Stone Island in Enterprise in 2001.

 

I once was a normal person; that is, not really involved in government or politics. But when we got here, the Thornby fight was just heating up and I found myself in the thick of the struggle to keep this beautiful, historic place from "death by high-density development." The "Friends of Thornby" grassroots group was formed, and I soon was leading the fight, hiring lawyers and planners, researching, speaking at hearings, rounding up experts.

 

Along the way I was appointed to the Volusia Growth Management Commission. Fighting a big density increase on Thornby taught me more than I ever thought it was possible for an ordinary citizen to know about how government works and how politics informs everything from road-widening to rezonings to personal relationships.

 

So, I wrote a book about the nine-year struggle, with a lot of local history thrown in for good measure.  The Story of Thornby was edited by David Wiggins, former Editorial Director of the Daytona News-Journal, published in 2011 by Blackwyrm Publishers of Louisville, KY, and is now in its third printing.