Photo provided Ermenelda “Erma” Tiffany as a high school graduate.

A woman whose family was one of the first to settle in Cape Coral passed away late last month at the age of 96.

Ermenelda “Erma” Tiffany brought her four young children to Cape Coral in 1960 after her husband, Capt. Douglas Roy Tiffany, lost his life in a tragic airplane crash as a pilot in the Air Force.

Erma’s daughter and third child, Terry, said she can remember the family getting a free freezer for being the 100th family to come to the new community.

The Tiffanys bought a plot of land in the Cape, which Douglas discovered in a magazine ad prior to his passing. After his death, the chaplain of the Air Force drove the family down to Florida from Michigan, where a house was built for them on land at 1443 Windsor Court.

“There was only one other house on that street,” Terry said of a community that was just in its infancy at the time, recalling dirt and gravel roads amidst an underdeveloped area.

Photo provided Ermenelda “Erma” Tiffany was an early Cape resident.

As if acclimating to a new environment after the passing of a loved one wasn’t enough, Terry remembers their home was severely damaged by Hurricane Donna mere months after moving in.

While raising four children as a widow, Erma was a strong role model for her family and pursued her dreams of becoming an educator.

She graduated from Edison Junior College in Fort Myers in 1967 while in her 40s before attending the University of Florida and earning her bachelor’s degree. Erma didn’t stop there, as she continued on to North Carolina to pursue her masters degree, which she obtained, before coming back to Florida and living in the Ocala area teaching at the local community college.

“At Edison Junior College, her professor told her, ‘You have got to keep going,'” Terry said of her mother’s educational journey. “She just loved it. It was inspiring.”

Between earning her bachelors and masters, Erma was even a substitute teacher at Cypress Lake High School.

Terry remembers one summer when her mother was working at the NASA tracking station in Fort Myers (which closed in 1972). They would take their boat across the Caloosahatchee River to drop off and pick up their mother from work, as there was no bridge connecting the Cape and Fort Myers at the time.

“She was just incredible,” Terry said.

Erma loved to travel, and attached a camper to an old pick-up truck that the family would take around the country.

“By the time I was 12 she had taken us to all of the contiguous states and Canada,” Terry said. “She loved to travel. She loved to drive. We had tons of fun memories. My siblings and I were the best of friends. And, of course, our pets would always travel with us, too. It was a lot of fun.”

Erma is survived by her children, Tim Anne Tiffany, Bruce Douglas Tiffany, Terri Lee Tiffany, and Bonnie Strickland; seven grandchildren; seven great-grand-children, and nephew, Mike Doring.

Erma loved nature and the outdoors, as well as learning about all of new environments she and her children would travel to. Terry said all of the family would have been, at one time or another, introduced to Erma and Douglas’ love or waterskiing. 

“She was strict, without being mean, and very loving. She loved us all,” Terry said. “Whatever we wanted to do, she supported us and found a way to make it happen. She provided above and beyond for us.

“She had a good sense of humor, a good sense of responsibility and always had a smile and a good attitude.”

Interment will be at Barrancas National Cemetery, Grave site 381, Naval Air St., 80 Hovey Road, Pensacola, Fla., beside her beloved husband.

Ermenelda “Erma” Tiffany as a high school graduate.

Photos provided