Evelyn Horne, a daughter of Charles Luettich and Doris Fernandez, was born on Mound Key, and although her family moved to the mainland so their children could go to school, the family spent much of their summers and weekends on the island. Evelyn remembers scampering up and down mounds of shells left behind by the Calusa Indians.

Their family was poor, but rich in good times. Christmas 1932 was special and they went to Fort Myers during the holidays. She saw Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. Edison gave her a doll and Ford gave her a shiny dime. But she said that her best Christmas surprise was seeing her first tree all lit up. Lights on the tree were amazing to the children who grew up without electricity. "We got electricity in 1946, and we gave the biggest party to FP&L. It was a fish fry you can't believe." Horne said.

In Estero Horne attended school in a one-room schoolhouse on a road that is now Broadway. They had few neighbors out there among the palmettos and scrub brush. During her high school days, she peeled hundreds of mangos for a woman named Edith Trebell, who owned a jelly plant After the mangos were peeled and packed, they were shipped off to the Waldorf Astoria.

Evelyn remembers Thomas Edison and Henry Ford visiting her home. She remembers her first job at age 17 at the Koreshan Unity, where she still works today. She began working for the Koreshans in 1940. She remembers a powerful hurricane in 1926 when her parents packed their new Model T Ford and their five children and set out to outrun it. When the family returned home they found their house blown off its foundation.---Information from article by Andrea Stetson, News Press Writer: FERNANDEZ CLAN SPREADS FROM ISLAND.