Former first lady Rhea Chiles dies at 84

Former Florida First Lady Rhea Chiles, the wise and gentle “inner voice” of her husband’s remarkable political career, died Sunday at her home on Anna Maria Island. She was 84.

Mrs. Chiles was surrounded by family members. A family spokesman said she had been in declining health and in hospice care, but died at home.

“While she has faced health challenges over the last several years, up until the last three or four months, she continued to do the things she loved best – enjoying family and friends, painting and encouraging others,” the family’s statement said.

The former Rhea Grafton of Coral Gables married attorney Lawton M. Chiles of Lakeland in 1951. He was elected to the Florida Legislature in 1958, with his wife assisting in his campaigns, and in 1970 she conceived the unique attention-getting ploy of walking the length and breadth of the state – from Century at the Alabama line to the end of the Florida peninsula – in a longshot race for the U.S. Senate.

Chiles, henceforth known as “Walkin’ Lawton,” won a five-way Democratic primary and defeated former Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Cramer of St. Petersburg. He served three terms in the Senate, retiring in 1988.

Mrs. Chiles also founded “Florida House,” a Washington welcome spot for visitors near the U.S. Capitol.

In 1990, Chiles came out of retirement and beat Republican Gov. Bob Martinez. He survived the GOP “Gingrich Revolution” four years later, narrowly defeating a young Jeb Bush for a second term as governor.

Chiles sometimes took positions that defied conventional political wisdom, saying he was following his “inner voice” in deciding what the state needed. Shortly before his death on Dec. 12, 1998, three weeks before he was to have left the governor’s office, Chiles let it be known that his “inner voice” had been his wife’s counsel for 40 years in politics.

Her reflection appears in a mirror painted behind Chiles in his official portrait at the state Capitol.

“On this platform today, I am blessed to have my closest confidant, my best friend, my key political adviser, the love of my life, my wife and the mother of my children,” Chiles said in his inaugural address as governor in 1991.

She also founded the Lawton Chiles Foundation to support children’s programs.

Mrs. Chiles oversaw compilation of a book, “700 North Adams St.,” that tells the history of the Governor’s Mansion, including its predecessor at the same address. The large bronze sculpture named “Florida’s Finest,” depicting five children and a dog playing on a log in an oak-shaded park across from the mansion’s front door, was also her idea.

Aside from her interest in the arts and her role as a gracious hostess at the mansion, Mrs. Chiles was well known as her husband’s top adviser on politics and policy.

“Anyone who ever worked in the administration knew you needed to get her ear first,” Ron Sachs, a Tallahassee public relations executive who was the governor’s communications director, said Sunday night. “He trusted her vision in everything. He’d say she was the best sounding board he ever had.”

She was honored with the “Distinguished Floridian” award of the Economic Club of Florida in 2009. Her family said details of a memorial service are being worked out and will be announced soon.