By Donna Green-Townsend 

A little more than a decade ago I set out to do a documentary on the influence three famous Marjories had on the environmental movement in Florida. Florida’s former Governor and long-time Senator, Bob Graham, had deep admiration for all three women who are now honored in the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame: American journalist, author and conservationist Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Environmental activist and scientist Marjorie Harris Carr, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. As a journalist I had written articles on all three women. Now in this video you will see excerpts of my interview with Bob Graham from October 2, 2013 about the three Marjories of Florida.

Senator Graham died on April 16th at the age of 87. He will be remembered for his many years as a public servant, not only in Florida state government, but in the U.S. Senate where he had key roles serving on the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and on the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating the 9/11 attacks. He will long be recognized for his political efforts to restore the Florida Everglades and save Florida's freshwater springs. Graham will also be remembered for his many Florida workdays where as a state legislator and gubernatorial candidate in the late 70s he undertook a series of 100 "workdays" experiencing the lives of ordinary Floridians firsthand by working their jobs. Read the full written transcript of the interview segments about the three Marjories of Florida in the  Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm Spring 2024 newsletter.

Approximately 145 park rangers, specialists and personnel from the Florida Park Service toured the MKR Farm as part of a State Interpretive Workshop on September 27th.

The visit to the MKR Historic State park included tours of MKR's home, video showings of our documentary, "From Novel to Movie: The Yearling in Florida," and refreshments including gingerbread made from MKR's Cross Creek Cookery.

Among the participants was the Director of the Division of Recreation and Parks for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Chuck Hatcher. The two-day Interpretive Workshop also included Tours of Silver Springs State Park and Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park.

Documentary Update: If you wanted to watch our documentary: From Novel to Movie: The Yearling in Florida but missed viewing it on WUFT-TV or your cable or satellite didn't carry WUFT-TV or your PBS station in your part of the state already aired it, we've got some good news.... Click the link below to watch it:

www.pbs.org/.../from-novel-to-movie-the-yearling.../

If you are watching on your phone you can cast it to your TV.

Here are more ways to watch the documentary:

If you have the PBS app on your TV you can view it from ANY PBS location by searching for Yearling.

You can go to PBS.org and use the search button and type in Yearling and you should be able to view it.

If you have the WUFT-TV passport you can also see it there.

Thank you to everyone for your wonderful comments about this program. It's been a labor of love and quite a journey. We love knowing Marjorie's story of The Yearling is getting out to the world.

Donna Green-Townsend, Producer

Kathlyne Walkup Sheppard, Co-producer

The Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm citizen support organization is proud to announce that our documentary, From Novel to Movie: The Yearling in Florida is being offered to more than 350 public television stations across the country via the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA). 

Read the full article

Marjorie’s Farmhouse has a new roof!

In April 2022 Sally Baskin Hooker and her husband Jim visited the farm.  Sally is a niece of Norton Baskin, Marjorie’s second husband, and was interviewed for an oral history at that time.  Excerpts from that interview may be found in the Summer and Fall Newsletters.

Stumps have been removed, and 15 new citrus trees have been planted – all thanks to a grant from the Florida State Parks Foundation as well as support from the Friends and the work of park volunteers and staff.  What an improvement the trees make!

The garden is bursting with zinnias, butterflies, and  hummingbirds. Come visit our garden today.