Mavynee betsch biography of donald

  • Environmental activist and opera singer MaVynne “Beach Lady” Betsch was born on January 13, in Jacksonville, Florida.
  • MaVynee left behind her opera career and became an environmental activist doing all she could to restore and protect American Beach.
  • This heartfelt picture book biography illustrated by the Caldecott Honoree Ekua Holmes, tells the story of MaVynee Betsch, an African American opera singer.

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    Betsch, MaVynee –

    Environmental activist

    A Pampered Heiress

    Returned Home

    Gave Fortune Away

    Crusader to Save Historic Parcel

    Sources

    MaVynee Betsch is affectionately known as the Beach Lady for her emotional attachment and civic dedication to American Beach, a small parcel of Atlantic Ocean waterfront that is the last surviving coastal community of African Americans in the state of Florida. Located at the northeast tip of the state near Jacksonville, American Beach was established on Amelia Island in the s by Betsch&#x;s great-grandfather as a resort community for African Americans. Though she herself grew up amidst great wealth and privilege, Betsch gave much of her inheritance away to environmental causes, and since the mids has slept on the beach on a chaise lounge. She is considered American Beach&#x;s unofficial mayor, and has fought tenaciously to keep the growing popularity of luxury oceanfront resorts from eradicating its boundaries entirely. Black f

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    [TAPE 1, SIDE A]

    [START OF TAPE 1, SIDE A]
    MaVYNEE BETSCH:

    Mostly the tours, people coming down here in their buses. [unclear] adore that.

    KIERAN TAYLOR:

    I'm going to keep an eye on this. inom think it's doing right. I'll set this kind of close to you. I think that should be good. Don't, you shouldn't need to aim for it. It should pick up everything.

    MaVYNEE BETSCH:

    [unclear] take it all down. Stay up there. There you go.

    KIERAN TAYLOR:

    Let me just for the sake of the tejp if we could uppstart out, if you would just säga your name and maybe when and where you were born.

    MaVYNEE BETSCH:

    My name fryst vatten Marvene, naw, the spelling is different now because I took the R out. But it, inom know spell it M-A—capital V-Y-N-E-E. inom took the R out because of Reagan. inom am an environmentalist and of course he had the nerve to säga when you've seen one redwood, you've seen them all and that infuriated me so. So inom took my R out. The mittpunkt name fryst vatten Elizabeth. inom changed that be

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    The unsung hero who saved a Florida beach

    The fact you don’t hear MaVynee Oshun Betsch mentioned alongside conservationists like John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and perhaps Rachel Carson says more about who we enshrine in history books than Betsch’s remarkable contributions to the environmental movement and her valiant campaign to save a landmark of Black history.

    Betsch was born in to wealth, and embarked on an international career as an opera singer before returning to her Florida hometown and donating most of her fortune to a long list of environmental causes. But even that pales alongside her dedication to preserving American Beach, a dune-dappled stretch of sand 40 miles northwest of Jacksonville that was among the most popular vacation spots for African Americans during the Jim Crow era.

    American Beach is not unique in serving those who were barred by law or by custom from recreation opportunities others took for granted. Black beach communities sprang up in coastal areas nation

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