Global InformationFlorence Martus information
Florence Martus | |
|---|---|
 Martus around 1940 | |
| Born | Florence Margaret Martus August 7, 1868 Cockspur Island, Georgia, U.S. |
| Died | February 8, 1943 (aged 74) Savannah, Georgia, U.S. |
| Resting place | Laurel Grove North Cemetery, Savannah |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Waving |
Florence Margaret Martus (August 7, 1868 – February 8, 1943),[1] also known as "the Waving Girl", took it upon herself to be the unofficial greeter of all ships entering and leaving the Port of Savannah, Georgia, via the Savannah River, between 1887 and 1931.[1] A few years after she began waving at passing sailors, she moved in with her brother, a light keeper, at his small white cottage about five miles upriver from Fort Pulaski. From her rustic home on Elba Island, a tiny piece of land in the Savannah River near the Atlantic Ocean, Martus waved a handkerchief by day and a lantern by night. According to legend, not a ship was missed in her forty-four years on watch. A statue of Martus by the sculptor Felix de Weldon was erected in Morrell Park on Savannah's historic riverfront in 1972.
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