Why were you led to start Martha’s Vineyard?

My husband, Dennis and I had moved to Pensacola to “slow down”. 

Dennis had been an attorney and pastor in Indiana where we raised 5 

children. I worked on a specialized neonatal-pediatric fl ight team for 

almost 25 years in Louisville, KY.  We also transferred high-risk moms 

and cardiac patients.    

In April of 2009, Martha and Steve Rouse were coming through 

Pensacola on their way to Bike Fest in Panama City with another 

couple on their bike behind them. Something sliced through their 

back tire landing Martha in a coma and Steve in a wheelchair and air 

cast when Dennis caught up with him and his family already in from 

Tennessee. Dennis asked them where they were staying.  “In a Comfort 

Inn as long as they could.” Dennis invited all of them to our house. 

While they were staying with us, I had a dream in which I was told to 

sell our beautiful home, fi nd a home in a great location, call this home 

“Martha’s Vineyard of Pensacola,” and take in families like the Rouse’s 

the rest of our lives.  I argued in my dream that the name was dumb, 

that someone else could do this job much better than I, and that no one 

would believe me anyway.  

In August of 2009, we purchased the property.  It needed work, but 

14 months later with more than 150 volunteers, we took in our fi rst 

family November 2010. 

photos provided by

 

Martha’s Vineyard

Interview with Marty Tackett, Founder  

Martha’s Vineyard

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