HR 9097

1	House Resolution
2	A resolution honoring the late MaVynee Oshun Betsch.
3
4	WHEREAS, dubbed the "face of American Beach," Nassau
5	County's most famous resident, MaVynee Oshun Betsch, has been
6	featured in numerous national and regional publications,
7	including "Smithsonian Magazine," "Preservation," and "Sierra";
8	has been called a recognized leader in preserving land and
9	history in the South; and was one of six who recently received a
10	freedom award from the local chapter of the National Association
11	for the Advancement of Colored People, typical of the many
12	honors she received during her lifetime, and
13	WHEREAS, MaVynee Oshun Betsch was born in 1935, the same
14	year in which her great-grandfather Abraham Lincoln Lewis led in
15	the founding of American Beach on the southern end of Amelia
16	Island as a resort for African Americans during a time they were
17	barred from beaches reserved for whites, and
18	WHEREAS, Ms. Betsch was educated at the Oberlin
19	Conservatory of Music in Ohio, studied voice in Paris, and moved
20	to Germany, where she performed and sang opera for a decade
21	before she returned to her beloved island and earned the title
22	of "Beach Lady" for her determined fight to protect American
23	Beach from development and preserve its history, and
24	WHEREAS, in time, Ms. Betsch persuaded a local developer to
25	donate to the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve of the
26	National Park Service a 60-foot-tall sand dune she named NaNa, a
27	word in the West-African Twi dialect for "grandmother," an
28	accomplishment realized only after her characteristic zeal and
29	persistence resulted in the passage of an act of Congress, and
30	WHEREAS, typical of her colorful lifestyle, Ms. Betsch,
31	whose favorite color was orange, like the rope once used in the
32	ocean to segregate black and white swimming areas, wore an
33	incredible 30 years' growth of seven-foot-long hair, much of
34	which she carried in a suitcase and which, at her request, was
35	removed at the time of her death on September 5, 2005, to be
36	incorporated into a piece of artwork for display at the future
37	A. L. Lewis American Beach Museum, her one major project not
38	completed during her lifetime, NOW, THEREFORE,
39
40	Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of
41	Florida:
42
43	That the Florida House of Representatives honors MaVynee
44	Oshun Betsch, the state's renowned "Beach Lady," and her work as
45	an outstanding example of the accomplishments that may be
46	realized by a life fired by passion, commitment, and
47	determination.

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.