MIAMI LAKES, Florida — Family and friends on Saturday remembered former Florida Governor and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham as a politician who generally avoided grudges, enjoyed meeting ordinary Floridians and always behaved politely, even behind closed doors.
About 200 people gathered for a memorial service at the Miami Lakes United Church of Christ for the two-term governor and three-term senator, who died last month at age 87. They were greeted with recorded music by fellow Floridian Jimmy Buffett, who died last year. .
The program featured a photo of Graham smiling in a tie, his suit jacket thrown over his shoulder and his pant legs rolled up as he stood deep in the mud of the Everglades. On an easel at the front of the chapel was a painting of Graham, his wife of 65 years, Adele, dabbing her eyes as she sat in the first pew with their family.
Robin Gibson, a lifelong friend who was Graham’s general counsel as governor, said in his eulogy that Graham’s friendly and civil public demeanor was no charade — he conducted himself that way, even in important and stressful meetings. Graham, a Harvard University-educated lawyer whose family built Miami Lakes, served as governor from 1979 to 1987.
“There was no macho blasphemy. There was no agenda. There was no small matter. There was no gossip. It was, ‘How can we make the best decision for the best reason?’ It was that simple,” Gibson said.
Two practices Graham was known for were his penchant for taking meticulous notes after many interactions and his “workdays,” where as governor and senator he spent a shift each month in a different, regular job.
Buddy Shorstein, a longtime friend who became his chief of staff, said Graham looked forward to every day of work and was eager to “learn what the average Floridian went through to make a living.” He did more than 400, including teacher, bellhop, construction worker, laborer and farmhand.
After each, Graham returned to his office “refreshed and rejuvenated,” Shorstein said. “The most important, consistent lesson he learned was that good public policy makes good politics.”
Shorstein was annoyed by the way some political reporters viewed Graham’s notes as “idiosyncratic,” while he said his former boss was decidedly not. He wondered whether that public perception played a role in Graham being passed over by Democratic presidential candidates Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton and Al Gore as their vice presidential choice.
Shorstein speculated that Gore would have won in 2000 if he had chosen Graham, because the Florida race was decided by a margin of 537 votes. According to him, that would have prevented the second war in Iraq.
Former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham, the eldest of Graham’s four daughters, joked about how she was a student in Washington, D.C., in 1987 when her father was elected to the Senate. He became her roommate so her mother could stay in Florida while the youngest daughter finished high school.
She said that one evening she found her father in the kitchen “stirring something that looked inedible in a pot.” She asked him what it was.
“He proudly replied, ‘Pumpkin.’ I saw the empty can and offered to get him something more substantive and delicious for dinner. But he said, No, no. This is amazing. That sums up Dad, so easy to get along with. The pumpkin met his needs. Besides, it didn’t cost him a cent. My father was notoriously frugal,” she said, laughing.
But then she got serious and said her father was always her inspiration and role model.
“There has never been a day that I wasn’t proud to be Bob Graham’s daughter.”
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Spencer reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.