Activist shaped landscape of Broward politics
Lottie Albert, considered the grande dame of the Broward Democrats because of her unrelenting activism to bring likeminded politicians to power, died Sunday, according to family and friends. She was 102.
“Old age finally caught up with her — not sickness,” said her daughter, Doreen Albert.
Doreen Albert said her mother will be remembered “as a generous, caring soul who believed in helping people.”
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, DWeston, knew Lottie Albert as a mentor, friend and leader, who provided great advice. “She was one of the pioneering — and I mean this term affectionately — condo commandos who retired to South Florida, and was focused on making sure that our community came together, that people voted, that they were registered,” Wasserman Schultz said.
“I know she’ll rest in peace as she goes to run the condo that she will be spending eternity ruling over.”
Lottie Albert was born in Brooklyn, the daughter of immigrants who had fled to America to escape Russia.
Her family supported the unions who backed the working man and the idea that some needed to be helped and taken care of.
“She was a liberal,” said her daughter. “I think she believed in what they espoused.”
When the family moved to Cleveland, she worked as a manager at a department store. But when her daughters and their children relocated to Broward, Lottie Albert and her husband finally followed in 1973.
They settled in Lauderdale Lakes. A political star was born.
She became active in local politics, then county and even judicial races. State politics and presidential races also were on her radar.
“What started as a hobby became a career for her,” said Mitch Ceasar, the former chairman of the Broward Democratic Party. “She took great joy in the activism. She would literally seek out candidates and say, “I want to help you.’”
Broward in the 1970s was primarily a Republican county, Ceasar said. But “with the advent of condominiums, that began to change,” he said. “She was part of the huge influx of condominium folks who changed the face of Broward.”
Lottie Albert served as the president of the Lauderdale Lakes Democratic Club. In 1989, she was inducted into the Dr. Nan S. Hutchison Broward Senior Hall of Fame.
Then 73, she was called a “multi-faceted individual” for her nearly two decades of work at the time.
She served as a member of the Broward County Human Rights Commission, a volunteer for the Ann Storck Children’s Home in Fort Lauderdale, and president of her condominium association in Lauderdale Lakes.
She secured a $20,000 grant for a MediVan, a mobile medical unit serving Broward’s lower-income elderly, by producing fundraising variety shows at her condo.
Lottie Albert was selective about which candidates she backed — but still classy to the ones she didn’t.
“If she supported you, she supported you 100 percent,” Doreen Albert said. “But if she didn’t support you, she never spoke badly. She was pretty amazing.”
With the heat too much at political rallies and her eyesight starting to fail, Lottie Albert didn’t take to the streets for the ClintonTrump election, but spoke publicly whenever given the opportunity.
“She was very sad in her lifetime that she didn’t get to see a woman be president,” her daughter said.
In addition to her daughter, Doreen, of Sunrise, Lottie Albert is survived by her daughter, Harriet Samar, of Tamarac; six grandchildren; four great-grandchildren and one great-greatgrandchild.
The funeral will be 12 p.m. Friday at Star of David Memorial Gardens Cemetery and Funeral Chapel, 7701 Bailey Road in North Lauderdale.
Staff writer Anthony Man contributed to this report.
lhuriash@sunsentinel.com, 954-572-2008 or Twitter @LisaHuriash