TALLAHASSEE – On Nov. 24, Governor Ron DeSantis announced the selection of Alice Scott Abbott, Alma Lee Loy and Ethel Thelma Waters to the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame. Each year, the Governor selects three nominees from recommendations presented by the Florida Commission on the Status of Women.

Ethel Thelma Waters, of Indiantown, was a leading force in her community for civil rights. In the late 1960’s, she opened up her own daycare center to offer affordable childcare options to local farmworkers. She served as the director of the East Coast Migrant Head Start for 10 years, where she held monthly meetings for parents and taught them English in order for them to gain a better understanding of what their children were learning. Waters advocated for healthcare in Indiantown so passionately, that the American Friends Service Committee assisted her in establishing a full clinic with its own doctors and dentists to serve the Indiantown community. Her next area of focus became establishing affordable and quality housing in Indiantown where in 1973 Waters helped facilitate the first neighborhood of affordably priced houses.

In 2017 she was one of the three founders of the articles of incorporation for the Village of Indiantown.