Tag Archives: Marjorie Carr

Remembering Marjorie Carr

Originally aired on WUFT on October 17, 1997

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Aerial view of the Cross Florida Barge Canal on Florida’s Gulf Coast.

(original script) Funeral services were held on Thursday for environmentalist Marjorie Carr.  Carr died October 10th at the age of 82 after a long battle with emphysema.  Carr is the Gainesville conservationist who initiated a successful campaign in the 1960s to kill the Cross Florida Barge Canal.  She was laid to rest on Thursday in Evergreen Cemetery in Gainesville next to her husband Archie Carr, the renowned sea turtle researcher who died in 1987.  Family members planned the service around the theme she most embraced- natural Florida.  She was buried in a natural wood casket and her service included readings from the boo of Genesis about the wonders of Eden and the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, who, like Marjorie Carr, loved nature.  But it was the bumper sticker placed in the back window of the hearse at the church which best characterized how Marjorie Carr spent her last years.  It read, “Free The Ocklawaha River.”  Most of the friends who attended the service vowed to continue her fight.  Donna Green-Townsend reports.