“If anybody cares about lakes in Orange County, the best thing they can do is take care of them. Don’t run stuff into the lake that doesn’t belong there. Protect it from pesticides and fertilizers.” —Peggy Lantz

Peggy Lantz learned to swim in Lake Lucy at age four. Nearly nine decades later, she still heads out to the peaceful water every day.

She steps out her back door and rides her electric tricycle to her beloved dock. She sits with her Shetland Sheepdog, Sandy, and takes in the sights and sounds of nature.

Lantz can identify every nearby plant; she knows every bird by its call. “That’s a brown thrasher,” Lantz said, turning toward the cackling.

It’s no wonder Lantz knows Lake Lucy and its inhabitants so well. The 64-acre lake located east of Ocoee is a rich part of her family’s history. It’s where her grandparents lived. The five-acre property where Lantz’s home sits was purchased by her father in 1935.

As a child Lantz spent carefree summers in the lake, not retreating until long after her skin wrinkled.

Lantz watched her four children grow up near Lake Lucy where she lived with her husband of 61 years before his death in 2020.