Community honors woman who saved Boynton’s history
Eleanor ‘Marie’ Shepard helped preserve school, Woman’s Club buildings.
BOYNTON BEACH — A little bit of old Boynton Beach is gone with the passing of Eleanor “Marie” Shepard.
The former Boynton Beach resident, named Palm Beach County’s healthiest baby in 1921 and who made a name for herself fighting for the preservation of Boynton Beach’s school and Woman’s Club buildings, died March 13 at 96 from natural causes.
A group of about 40 attended her funeral this past week at First United Methodist Church, of which she was a member and what is likely the city’s first church, but no one can say for sure.
Shepard’s impact on Boynton’s history when it was a small town is clear by the presence of those at her funeral. In addition to friends and family were members of the city’s Woman’s Club and historical society and Curtis Weaver and his wife, Nainie Weems Weaver. Nainie Weaver’s father, Nathaniel Weems, was Boynton’s first and only doctor for almost three decades. Shepard’s mother taught Nainie Weaver at Boynton Elementary School.
“I think we’re all going to miss her a great deal,” said Voncile Smith, a historian for the historical society. “Especially in historic preservation.”
The group remembered her for her intelligence, her passion, her work ethic, how proud she was to say she was a survivor of the deadly 1928 hurricane and her love of Snoopy and the “Peanuts” cartoon.
“I found this Snoopy cartoon; it said, ‘Stay humble, work hard, be kind,’” Shepard’s niece Anne Marie Schur said at the service. “And that just says it, to me, for her.”
Boynton declared a day in her honor: Marie Shepard Day, which is Oct. 17, according to her obituary.
Shepard graduated from Boynton Beach High School in 1939 and attended Florida Southern College in Lakeland. After that, she moved to New York City, where she lived for about 30 years and worked her way up at White & Case law firm, where she was executive secretary.
She came back to Boynton in 1976.
Shepard was president of the Boynton Woman’s Club — the members recently sold the building to the Community Redevelopment Agency — and of the Woman’s Club Historic Preservation Foundation. She helped secure money from the state and private donations to restore the Mizner building on Federal Highway.
Craig Shepard said his aunt one night attracted the attention of the police while she had the lights on at the club so she could move a piano. Woman’s Club member Lillian Ostiguy remembers when she didn’t know who Shepard was and saw her walking up the staircase with a bucket of water.
“Can I help you?” Ostiguy asked.
Shepard responded she didn’t need help, she was just going to water the palm trees.
She also remembered her for buying a new piano for performances and then attending every single recital.
Shepard worked with the Boynton Historic Society in preserving the Boynton High School and elementary school, which is now the Schoolhouse Children’s Learning Center and Museum.
The historic high school — and whether to save it — has been a topic of heated debate for decades. Shepard, of course, wanted it saved. It wasn’t until recently that the City Commission decided not to tear it down and redevelop it into a civic and cultural arts center.
Anne Marie Schur said her aunt wasn’t aware of the final decision.
“She didn’t know,” Schur said. “She was pretty much bedridden.” If she did know?
“She’d say, ‘Hooray!’” Smith said.