Dr. Ella Mae Piper was a pioneering Black businesswoman, philanthropist and education advocate who worked tirelessly to improve the lives of marginalized residents at a time of strict racial segregation in Fort Myers.
After graduating from Spelman College and Rohrer’s Institute of Beauty Culture, she moved south and set down roots here in Fort Myers in 1915, starting her chiropody practice and opening the town’s first beauty shop.
She also became owner of the Big 4 Bottling Company where people could get soft drinks for five cents a bottle.
She helped finance the construction of Williams Academy, the first school in Southwest Florida where Black children could receive a high school education, and helped fund the Jones-Walker Hospital, the area’s first hospital for people of color.
At the end of her life in 1954 she left her property to the City of Fort Myers with the stipulation that it be used to provide a place for children and the elderly. In 1976, the Dr. Piper Center for Social Services was dedicated on that property, and 50 years later her passion and legacy lives on through the work they do supporting vulnerable elderly residents and at-risk youth and special needs kids, as well as their communities.
Now a new one-woman show about her life and legacy titled “Walking in Her Shoes: The Life & Legacy of Dr. Ella Mae Piper,” comes to Florida Repertory Theatre.
We’ll learn more in a conversation with the director and co-playwright, Monique Caldwell, and actor, Sonya McCarter, of Friday evening’s premiere performance recorded on location at the restaurant that bears her name, “Ella Mae’s Diner” at the Luminary Hotel.
If You Go:
“Walking in Her Shoes: The Life & Legacy of Dr. Ella Mae Piper
The Historic Arcade Theatre at Florida Repertory Theatre
2268 Bay Street Fort Myers, FL 33901
Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, at 7 p.m.
