Alma Dalton…

Click here to watch Alma’s 96th Birthday Celebration on April 22, 2020

Born in Key West on April 22, 1924, Alma was the oldest child of Bertram Pinder and Ida Cothron Pinder.

She grew up in Islamorada, with her sister Dorrie and their little brother Joe. She loved to swim and play at the beach. Her favorite thing to do though, was fish off the dock at the Matecumbe Club where her father was the caretaker.

As a young girl, Alma, her immediate family, and the rest of her extended family and friends had the unfortunate experience of going through the 1935 hurricane. She survived and is one of only two remaining survivors of that event.

Alma grew up going to school in a one room schoolhouse. By 1939 there was only one other student in the 10th grade with Alma. The teacher decided they should go to high school in Key West which had more students in their grade. She went to school in Key West through 11th grade then went to Georgia to live with her Aunt Leola for her senior year of high school.

In 1941, while on Christmas break, she met her husband Jack Dalton. Jack was stationed with the Coast Guard at the Alligator Reef Lighthouse. His mail was delivered to the post office, then taken to Alma’s Great Uncle Alvin and Aunt Ella’s house on Beach Road. Alma happened to be the one dropping his mail off that fateful day when he came ashore to pick it up.

They married in December of 1942, 6 months after she graduated from high school. They had two daughters, Sheila and Marge.

Alma has lived as far away as Utah and California, wherever Jack was stationed. Long after Jack’s passing, she moved to DeLand, Fl but soon came back home to the Keys where she lives to this day.

Alma is well respected in our community and we are proud to have her as the oldest living member of our church. The same church her family established 126 years ago.