Later this month, Naples, Marco Island and Everglades City might be able to lay claim to being one of the relatively few communities worldwide to spawn a saint.

If so, Deaconess Harriett Bedell would join such latter-day luminaries as nurse and social reformer Florence Nightingale, evangelist and hymn writer John Wesley and the first Anglican Bishop in North America, Samuel Seabury.

The possibility has local historians more than excited, perhaps none more than Islander Marion Nicolay, who regularly brings the deaconess to life in historical reenactments.

Nicolay says for that reason, she feels a tangible kinship with Bedell, who was born in 1875 in Buffalo, New York, initially became a teacher and then a deaconess and nurse after meeting a traveling Chinese missionary.

Bedell, said Nicolay, was first sent to Oklahoma to work with the Cheyenne, and later to Oregon and Alaska.

Eventually she was asked by a New York bishop to recruit missionaries in Florida, which resulted in her true calling.

“She took some time off, and was driving down U.S.41 when she saw local Indians selling items out of a chickee hut, and also posing for pictures to make a little money,” Nicolay said.

“She basically threw a fit at what she saw as degrading, so she obtained permission to remain and work with these people.”

Bedell based herself at what was then simply called Everglades, at the time the county seat.

She would buy items such as pottery and baskets from the American Indians with “script” money which was in turn redeemable for essential goods at the local store, Nicolay said.

At the same time, Bedell would minister to the American Indians, remaining in the area until Hurricane Donna — in 1960 — wiped out her mission and humble lodgings, including her office.

She was essentially forced to head for retirement (in Davenport, Florida), but refused to quit working and continued her life’s calling helping at an infirmary.

On a more personal level, Nicolay said, the deaconess had an acid wit.

Having once dined with then-President Truman at the Everglades Rod & Gun Club, she was asked what it was like to sit down with a president.

Her reply, Nicolay said, was: “He was alright for a Baptist.”

Other quirks associated with the deaconess, Nicolay said, were that she never owned a radio or went to a movie.

But she did drive a car, and was something of a “hellion” on the road, Nicolay said.

Another lasting minds-eye image of the woman, she said, was the deaconess nosing about the swamps in a canoe, dressed in a flowing habit and boots.

The proposal for Bedell’s sainthood has been in motion for about three years, and is strongly expected to pass at the Los Angeles convention.

Local historian Bill Perdichizzi said the distinction would be pride for this part of Southwest Florida.

“She played a significant role in the area,” Perdichizzi said. “On Marco, she ran a Sunday School, but her major contribution was in the Everglades.

“She would take wares to Miami to sell, and she also was an evangelist to them.”

Developer Barron Collier was one supporter, Perdichizzi said, providing her with many donations for her causes.

Bedell died in March, 1969, two weeks short of her 94th birthday.

“She just wore out,” Nicolay said.

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