100 Years After Railroad Debut, Flagler ‘Flower Girl’ Gets Bouquet
Just about 100 years ago, a five-year-old Key West girl was chosen to present a special bouquet of flowers to Henry Flagler’s wife Mary Lily on the day that marked the completion of Flagler’s Florida Keys Over-Sea Railroad.
Henry Flagler re-enactor Paul Jellinek reacts to remarks by 105-year-old Lamar Louise Curry after presenting flowers to her. (Photo by Andy Newman, Florida Keys News Bureau)
Those plans fell through — but a century later, at 105 years old, Lamar Louise Curry finally met “Flagler” and he presented a similar bouquet to her.
The Over-Sea Railroad, a miracle of engineering whose track stretched more than 100 miles out into open water, connected the previously isolated Keys with each other and the Florida mainland for the first time. Its completion has been called the most important single event in Florida Keys history.
On Jan. 22, 1912, when the first Over-Sea Railroad train arrived in Key West from the mainland, thousands of Key Westers greeted Flagler, his wife and other dignitaries. Despite carefully laid plans, however, the young Miss Curry was not among them.
The little girl had eaten peanuts the day before and come down with a terrible stomachache. Her stomach illness (later determined to be a sensitivity to peanuts) caused her to miss the train’s arrival, and the honor of presenting the flowers was given to another young lady.
When the organizers of the Florida Keys Over-Sea Railroad Centennial Celebration found out about Miss Curry — who now lives in Coral Gables, Fla. — they desperately wanted her to come to Key West on Jan. 22, 2012, to present flowers to a Mary Lily Flagler re-enactor.
Miss Curry displays a photograph of herself as a five-year-old girl -- the age she was when Henry Flagler's Over-Sea Railroad first steamed into Key West. (Photo by Andy Newman, Florida Keys News Bureau)
Unfortunately, her health simply wasn’t good enough to allow her to make the trip. So they did the next best thing.
Just before the centennial anniversary, Henry Flagler re-enactor Paul Jellinek went to see Miss Curry at her Coral Gables home.
“About 100 years ago, I understand that you were going to bring flowers to my lovely wife,” said Paul, who visited Miss Curry on his way to the Florida Keys for the centennial anniversary celebration. “You weren’t feeling well (that day), so this day I thought I would bring you some flowers.”
Miss Curry can’t quite remember how she felt about missing the honor, but she does remember the anticipation of Jan. 22, 1912, and what it was like to ride the “railroad that went to sea.”
“It was a great occasion and I remember planning it for a long time,” Miss Curry recalled. “We heard about it and watched it since 1909 being built.”
Mary Lily Flagler holds the flowers presented to her after the first Over-Sea Railroad train arrived in Key West Jan. 22, 1912. (Photo courtesy of the Monroe County LIbrary Collection)
She also recalled the experience of riding an Over-Sea Railroad train, especially when it traversed the Bahia Honda bridge.
“It was very exciting, because I looked out the window the whole time while we were on the trestle,” she said. “So it was a wonderful occasion to ride over it.”
Though the meeting between “Henry Flagler” and Miss Curry came 100 years later than originally planned, it was a momentous occasion for both of them.
Paul Jellinek, who is obsessed with the visionary Flagler he portrays, was the most enthusiastic of all.
Over and over, he kept repeating, “I can’t believe I’m seeing someone alive today who was alive when Henry Flagler arrived in Key West.”
