DELRAY BEACH —Doris Brady saw a lot of the world in her 94 years.
With her husband, she explored South America. They camped across Europe, visited Greece and toured Nepal. They drove across Monument Valley in the days when that was a risky ride.
But the trip that left her stranded in history was a simple Labor Day jaunt to Key West.
Mrs. Brady, who died Dec. 31 at Abbey Delray, was a passenger on the last train that tried to leave the island after the devastating 1935 hurricane that claimed more than 400 lives in the upper Keys and destroyed Henry Flagler’s overseas railroad.
And she was a part of Florida history long before that.
Doris Louise Peacock Brady was born on Nov. 28, 1916, the youngest grandchild of John “Jolly Jack” Peacock, whose Jack’s Bight is now called Coconut Grove.
Her husband, Roy, was a son of Robert Henry Brady, captain of the Key West schooner “Rosebud.”
Mrs. Brady was working in Miami when her fiancé suggested they take advantage of the special $2.50 Labor Day excursion rate to visit his brother in Key West. The two-day getaway lasted a week.
While the couple enjoyed Duval Street, the storm’s 200 mph winds attacked the people, homes and railroad to their north.
The return train finally left Key West late that Monday night, but returned mid-morning Tuesday after reaching only Vaca Key. Slowly the train backed itself into Key West. That afternoon, the passengers boarded a ship for Tampa, then caught a train to Jacksonville, then south to Miami and finally reached home about 2 a.m. the following Friday.
Mrs. Brady later wrote Last Train From Key West, a detailed account of the ordeal.
The couple, who were married in 1938, moved to Delray Beach in 1946 and opened Delray Glass & Mirror, the only glass shop between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach at the time.
In 1964, Mrs. Brady was a charter member of the Delray Beach Historical Society.
“She was an outstanding person,” remembered Dottie Patterson, the society’s archivist. “She was very active and came to all our events.”
In addition to her hurricane memoir, Mrs. Brady also wrote and published Johnny Bull of Coconut Grove, a thinly fictionalized novel about her pioneering grandfather.
“She was very lively,” said her daughter, Suzanne Brady Tripp of Fort Smith, Ark. “She used to sharpen her tongue every day, and she didn’t suffer fools gladly. She could cut them off at the knees, but she was interested in everything. She loved to write, and she loved to travel.”
Like her late husband, who died in 2001, Mrs. Brady willed her remains to the University of Miami Medical School.
“She’d always wanted to go to the University of Miami, but never could,” her daughter said. “So now she’s there.”
In addition to her daughter, she is survived by a son, Roy O. Grady Jr. of Providence, R.I.; three grandchildren, Owen Bossenger Brady, Brian Stuart Tripp, and Nicole Lou Tripp Dupre; and a great grandson, Ruken Halen Dupre.
Comments