Lois Blount, wife of former Parkland and Pompano Beach mayor, dies at 95
PARKLAND — Lois Blount, the wife of a Broward pioneer and mayor who served in Parkland and Pompano Beach, died Sunday at her daughter’s home in North Florida. She was 95.
According to the funeral home, Blount was born in Louisiana and after her father’s death moved to Pompano Beach with her mother. It was there where she met her husband Bruce Blount, a rancher who would eventually become the mayor of the two Broward cities.
According to Bruce Blount’s 1983 obituary in the Fort Lauderdale News, he was born in Pompano Beach and his family were among the city’s early pioneers. His father was the first clerk of the town of Pompano and served on the Broward County Commission around 1915 and in the state Legislature from 1928 to 1930.
Bruce Blount was elected to the Pompano Beach City Commission in 1957 and served for nearly three years, including a term as mayor. In the mid-1960s he was elected as mayor of Parkland, serving one term.
The family moved to Lake
Placid in 1963 to buy a larger cattle ranch and raise their family.
Lois Blount was a “super nice lady, very bright, very sincere about her love for the city of Parkland, she really always had the city in her heart,” said Parkland Commissioner Ken Cutler.
A road still bears the family name in Pompano Beach. And a historical landmark, the MargateBlount archaeological dig, bears the family name as well in honor of Bruce Blount, who uncovered the site in 1959.
Bruce Blount was digging a canal along the Everglades’ edge on land he’d inherited from his father when his equipment hit a wooden crypt. He had discovered the largest known number of prehistoric graves in Broward County where Tequesta Indians lived, conducted religious rituals and buried their dead. One man was interred with his canoe paddle.
The site is still protected and historical markers went up earlier this year. Historical officials said they still hope eventually to have a museum in the area.
Lois Blount is survived by three of her four children; nine grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.