Floridians mourn both Bob Graham and a kinder era in state politics

Florida bade farewell Friday to Bob Graham during a public memorial at Florida’s Old Capitol, with hundreds of people filing up to the second-floor rotunda where Graham lay in state and sharing memories with his family and friends.

Among the mourners was Graham’s wife, Adele, his daughters, Gwen (a former congresswoman), Cissy, Suzanne, and Kendall, and their families. A military honor guard conveyed the casket to its bier and stood watch throughout the event.

Adele Graham took a few moments before the flower-festooned coffin and then greeted mourners from an armchair nearby.

Graham died on April 16 at age 87.

Gov. Ron DeSantis had ordered U.S. and Florida flags flown at half-staff through the date of Graham’s interment, scheduled to follow the Capitol memorial. DeSantis hadn’t commented on Friday, but Attorney General Ashley Moody offered praise on X.

“An authentic Florida leader, Gov. Bob Graham, receives one of our state’s highest honors today, lying in state at the Old Capitol so Floridians can pay their respects. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and those who mourn him,” Moody wrote.

Many of the gentlemen and several ladies in attendance wore the ties bearing outlines of the state of Florida, a Graham trademark in the day. We spotted at least one of Graham’s campaign pins, shaped like a Graham cracker.

The mourners included gray eminences of Florida politics, people of both parties who’d served with Graham during his career in the Legislature, two terms as governor, and three terms as U.S. senator. In remarks shared with reporters, they also mourned a kinder era in state politics, when members of both parties competed but also cooperated to advance the state.

Among them was Bob Martinez, the Republican former Tampa mayor who succeeded Graham in the Governor’s Mansion. Martinez said he first met Graham when he was a teachers’ lobbyist and Graham was in the Legislature. Education was a key priority for Graham at the time.

“He was so easy to work with. Whether he agreed with you or not, you never left without a pleasant feeling about the meeting,” Martinez said.

‘It was a different time’

Martinez and his wife, Mary Jane, had lunch with the Grahams in Tampa before the pandemic. It was their last meeting, Martinez said.

“He was the first one to put the climate on the front burner. He did a lot of great things but, in my mind, bringing the environment to the forefront was the greatest thing he ever did for the state of Florida,” Martinez said.

“It was a different time. It wasn’t as contentious as it is today. We had a great transition. Whatever we needed was provided, whether it was office space or access to information,” Martinez said.

“You can’t go back – that’s gone. But I’m glad I was in public life yesterday, not today,” he said.

Former Senate President Jim Scott, also a Republican, recalled that he and Graham sat next to each other when the chamber was in the Old Capitol. They remained friends, he said.

“We were taught, and Graham was of that mold, you’re elected as a Democrat, you’re elected as a Republican, but then you’re a senator, or then you’re a governor, and you govern based on the whole state and try to deal with policy,” Scott said.

In fact, Scott added, he supported Graham during his 1978 race for governor. Then-state Attorney General Bob Shevin led in the first primary but Graham prevailed in the runoff and went on to beat drug store magnate Jack Eckert handily in the general election.

“I think he did an admirable job, and a great job in the U.S. Senate, too,” Scott said.

Hairstyle

It had been widely known that Graham planned to run for governor. The future candidate wore his hair slicked back in those days, Scott said. Dempsey Barron, the former Senate president from Panama City who remained powerful, made fun of Graham’s hairstyle.

“Dempsey Barron said, ‘You’ll never get elected governor with that hair.’ The second time he said it, he [Graham] leaned over to me and said, ‘What do you think about what he said?’ I said, ‘I think he’s right.’ I swear, he changed his hair,” Scott said.

While Graham was governor, Scott recalled, a trucking strike in Fort Lauderdale threatened gasoline supplies. “He announced he was going to call out the National Guard to deliver gas. Well, that was the end of the strike. He was willing to take a stand,” Scott said.

“In all those years of public service, I never saw him lose his temper, be rude or impatient,” Scott said.

Also spotted were Florida Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz, former Lt. Gov. Bobby Brantley, Tallahassee Mayor John Daley, former Tallahassee Mayor and Florida Public Service Commissioner John Marks, former Chiles aide Doug Cook, former Secretary of State Bruce Smathers (who served when that office was elective), state Sen. Linda Stewart of Orange County, and Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried.

‘Joyful’

People attending the memorial were “joyful because they have this remembrance of a great leader that really cared about the average Floridian, their problems, their concerns,” said Bud Chiles, son of the late Gov. and U.S. Sen. Lawton Chiles.

Graham “dedicated his life to meeting those needs. Put that above power, fame, money, and made the sacrifices that you needed to make,” Chiles added.

He recalled a “golden age” for Florida governors stretching from Leroy Collins during the 1950s through Reubin Askew and Graham during the ’70s and ’80s, and then Lawton Chiles during the ’90s, who fought the conservative rural interests who ran the state and brought Florida into the modern world on race relations, the environment, education, and more.

It was Lawton Chiles who ousted Martinez in the 1990 election after a single term and defeated Jeb Bush in a close 1994 election (Bush won the next time around). Lawton Chiles died suddenly of a heart attack in the Governor’s Mansion in 1998.

“Today, who is rising to the occasion, to really become a leader in governance and elective politics that will answer that call and be there for their needs, whether it’s the cost of housing in Florida, insurance issues, all the things that are really not being addressed?” Chiles said.

He also praised Adele Graham. “I think Bob Graham was elevated tremendously by Adele, and by how she was the strength at his side and how she was so open to treating everyone kindly. She was a wonderful First Lady.”

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