Bob Graham, perhaps the most peculiar and popular politician of modern Florida history, died Tuesday. The Democratic two-term governor (1979-87) and three-term U.S. senator (1987-2005) was 87.
He passed away at 8:30 p.m. of old age with his wife, Adele, and family by his side in a retirement community in Gainesville.
“We’re very attached and love him so much, so proud of him,” Adele told the Tallahassee Democrat in a phone interview. “He was an absolute devoted person in public service, to get things done for everybody.”
As a wealthy Harvard-educated lawyer from Miami Lakes whose legislator father lost a bid for governor that kindled his son’s early political interest, Graham skillfully balanced his aristocratic pedigree with a quirky common touch.
In an era when being from Miami-Dade County was no advantage, he chose a rural lawmaker — the late Lt. Gov. Wayne Mixson of Marianna — as his running mate in 1978. Campaign lapel pins touted them as the “Graham-Cracker ticket.”
For nearly 40 years in public life, Graham staged monthly “work days,” working jobs alongside everyday Floridians ranging from short-order cooks and baggage handlers to drug-enforcement agents and Capitol Press Corps reporters. He said it helped him keep in touch with regular people.
Although his critics called the work days a gimmick, after completing about 400 of them Graham reflected that they played a significant role in his political career and personal development.
“From the roof, you get a new horizon,” Graham said after working construction at a high school in 2003. “A horizon of the opportunities that are available in this great country.”
He was also known for carrying a little notebook wherever he went, jotting down minutiae and monumental events of his day — ranging from major Cabinet decisions and huge legislative dealings to something some resident told him or what time his airplane landed.
The pocket-sized notebook is a detail in Graham’s official Capitol portrait.
He once played Mr. Hucklebee in “The Fantasticks,” a 1985 fundraiser for the Florida Repertory Theatre in Palm Beach, and would sometimes mix lyrics from his song in the show — Plant a Radish — to make a point in a political speech.
His predecessor, Gov. Reubin Askew, was the first to make a cameo in the Capitol Press Corps skits, but Graham made it an annual tradition — performing with “mystery guests” ranging from Jimmy Buffett to the FAMU Marching 100.
In more solemn matters, Graham presided over 16 executions, including the first of modern times. That drew furious protesters to the Capitol and worldwide appeals in 1979 for commuting the sentence of John Spenkelink, who had killed a man in Tallahassee. Graham calmly insisted that capital punishment was the law and the governor had to carry it out when a killer’s appeals ran out.
Critics on both sides accused Graham of trying to look tough and offset the “Gov. Jello” tag hung on him by the editorial board of what was then called the St. Petersburg Times in an unrelated matter.
Florida was in the national spotlight in the late 1970s as singer Anita Bryant fought to repeal a Dade County gay rights ordinance. Two conservative state lawmakers put an amendment in the 1981 budget cutting aid to any state university where teachers encouraged “sexual relations between unmarried persons.” Although Graham couldn’t veto the budget language, he worked with then-Education Commissioner Ralph Turlington to get it declared unconstitutional.
During his term, Graham also dealt with hurricanes and later put in a “work day” sawing limbs when Hurricane Kate blew through Tallahassee in 1985.
He acted swiftly when truckers staged a strike that threatened fuel supplies to Florida’s vital agriculture and tourism industries. He activated 1,800 National Guard troops, escorted by Highway Patrol officers, to move some 600 truckloads of fuel.
As he began to retire from public life in 2004, he was hailed as…
This article was originally published by a www.tallahassee.com . Read the Original article here. .