CORTEZ – Residents of the last commercial fishing village in Florida will miss the “matriarch of Cortez,” Dr. Mary Frances Fulford Green, but those who knew her – and many who did not – will benefit from her remarkable legacy well into the future.
A commanding personality, Green died on June 9 in Tallahassee surrounded by her family.
God, family and fishing were her touchstones. She could recite whole sections of the Bible, the genealogies, marriages and deaths of the village’s founding families, and who fished with whom on what boats until her death at age 96.
“Mary definitely was a force to reckon with,” said Karen Bell of A.P. Bell Fish Co. “She was never one to take ‘no’ for an answer. I like to think she symbolized the people of this village – strong, tough, spirited and, at times, somewhat impossible! When she didn’t like the way I was doing something, she had no problem letting me know about it. I believe she was so proud of her family’s history and she wanted to share that story with anyone who would listen. And I mean anyone. I will miss her.”
Born in Cortez in 1925, Green was the granddaughter of 1887 Cortez settlers William Thomas Fulford and Sallie Adams of Carteret County, North Carolina. She was born in the house next door to the one she lived in when she died, the Walton “Tink” and Edith Wilson Fulford house, which the family moved into when she turned 1 year old.
The valedictorian of her Bradenton High School (later Manatee High School) Class of 1942, Green was selected as Manatee High School’s Outstanding Alumna in 2020.
She earned B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at Florida State College for Women, now Florida State University, in Tallahassee in science, chemistry and education. She taught high school science classes, was a guidance counselor in Florida’s public schools and helped to create the career counseling program at State College of Florida in Bradenton.
The proud redhead raised two sons and two daughters with her husband, who retired from the U.S. Air Force.
She was a licensed mental health counselor and served as president of Manatee County’s Mental Health Association for seven years, volunteering with the Manatee County Drug Court and several Florida prisons to mentor those incarcerated.
Of her many accomplishments, perhaps most important to her was her personal Christian ministry, holding Bible studies at the Manatee County jail, her daughter Carol Kio-Green said, adding that she also formed a group called WINGS to help women leaving prison gain employment.
A champion of women, she was one of the founders of HOPE Family Services in 1979 to assist victims of domestic violence.
Historian par excellence
All her life, Green vociferously expressed her love for and the importance of local history.
A natural step for a woman with an encyclopedic memory, she was instrumental in establishing the Cortez Village Historical Society in 1984.
“Mary’s life was Cortez, and she gave back over many years,” said Kaye Bell, of CVHS. “Mary fiercely defended this little village. She persevered against developers, big industry and anything that would change the footprint of the village and its way of making a living. She was also instrumental in obtaining nearly 100 acres of waterfront land to become a forever preserve for the public. We will miss her energy and are grateful for her many accomplishments.”
Green was one of the founding members of the Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage (FISH), which, over more than three decades, has gradually purchased 95 acres on Sarasota Bay called the FISH Preserve to protect and enhance the habitat for fish, birds and other wildlife.
She led the charge to have the fishing village of Cortez listed as a federal historic district. Green wrote the application and lobbied successfully to have Cortez put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. For that, she was honored by the Manatee Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 2020 with the DAR National Historic Preservation Recognition Award. Most of the 97 historic structures in the Cortez historic district were at one time homes of fishing families she grew up with. If not for Green’s efforts, many Cortez village buildings would likely have been lost.
“She was so proud to have gotten Cortez on the National and State Registry of Historic places,” FISH board member Jane von Hahmann said. “She was such a wealth of knowledge. I don’t think there was anything about the village, the FISH Preserve or the families that settled here in the late 1800s that she didn’t know. If you had a question about the past, she was definitely the go-to person. But she worried about the future as well, as it was tied to the past. Our history was beyond important to her. The pride she exuded of being a native-born Cortezian was contagious! But she did worry about who was going to keep the story of this village alive as the older past generations left this earth.”
To that end, Green became a driving force behind the creation of the Florida Maritime Museum, formerly the Cortez Rural Graded School, dedicated to preserving the state’s seafaring culture. When Manatee County took over the museum, she led the Cortez Village Historical Society to obtain the historic Monroe cottage and have it moved from Bradenton Beach to Cortez and renovated as the Cortez Village Historical Society’s Cortez Cultural Center. There, she worked to create a Cortez Family Life Museum to preserve the fishing history and heritage of Cortez, with a special exhibit on veterans. She dressed in vintage clothing as her grandmother to tell stories of old Cortez to groups visiting the center. Her storytelling was captured on video in “Gone Fishing For Old Florida: Voices of Cortez,” which aired on the WEDU series, “Diamonds Along the Highway” in 2019.
“The veterans and fishermen of Cortez were two of her biggest loves, with her goal yet to be realized of providing for a Cortez Veterans Memorial Center,” von Hahmann said. “With her gone now we shall see whether that dream can come to fruition.”
In another building move, Green pioneered the preservation and relocation of the 1890s-era Burton/Bratton store from the west end of Cortez village to the east end at the Florida Maritime Museum. The store now serves as a music stage at the annual Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival, where she volunteered.
The history devotee authored “Cortez – Then and Now” with Linda Molto in 1997. The two also produced the “Walking Tour Map of the Cortez Fishing Village.” Green also was a cookbook author, locally famous for her strawberry shortcake.
A project she did not have time to realize was writing the book, “The Little Fishing Village That Could – and Did.” It was to detail the many challenges that development posed to the village’s historic district, which she actively opposed.
With her razor-sharp mind and matching speaking manner, Green protested planned marinas and condos and a plan to demolish the Cortez Trailer Park and other proposed encroachments into the village. She opposed the planned closure of the Cortez post office in 2021, voicing the concerns of senior residents like herself with limited mobility who would have to arrange travel to the Palma Sola branch 4 miles away. She also opposed efforts to replace the Cortez Bridge with a larger one. The marina and condo plan were scrapped. The Cortez Trailer Park remains intact. The post office remains open. And neighbors residents have taken up the charge against a new, larger Cortez Bridge.
The Manatee County Commission gave the Cortez native her own day; April 14, 2012 was named Dr. Mary Fulford Green Day. But Green’s impact on Cortez will last lifetimes.
“She was amazing,” von Hahmann said. “Some might say a pain once in a while because of her passion, but boy, what an incredible life she lived, and what a loss I for one feel at her passing. I will miss her but I know how faithful she was and that she is now in her new Heavenly home! She closed every conversation we ever had with “God Bless” and He did that for me just in my knowing her. I will miss her!”
