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ST. PETERSBURG - Elizabeth S. "Betty" Mann, a staunch Republican who led GOP volunteers in local campaigns for President Bush, his father and brother Jeb, has died at 77.
Mrs. Mann, president of Bay Area Land Corp. and daughter of Depression-era developer B.F. Stephenson, died Sunday (Aug. 3, 2003) at St. Anthony's Hospital from complications after surgery, her family said.
"She ran the south county Republican headquarters for several campaigns, going back to the first President Bush, George W. Bush and all three of (Gov.) Jeb Bush's campaigns," Pinellas County Republican Chairman Paul Bedinghaus said Tuesday.
"She was a real leader in those efforts and also for Bob Dole in 1996," Bedinghaus said. "Because of her generosity and sharing her knowledge, she helped to develop perhaps hundreds of volunteers who can perhaps carry out the Betty Mann tradition."
"She was an avid Republican," said her brother, James Stephenson, a former City Council member. Involved in politics "since I can remember," Stephenson said, she got her first taste at a coffee for U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Largo, when he successfully sought a state Senate seat in 1960.
She also ran Stephenson's first campaign for the City Council, he recalled.
A member of the Republican Executive Committee of Pinellas County for more than 20 years, she received the 1999 Volunteer of the Year award from Republican Women Federated.
Born in Detroit, she attended Denison University and received bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Michigan.
Beginning in 1927, she was a seasonal resident of St. Petersburg. She moved here from Southern Pines, N.C., in 1957, three years after the death of her father.
One of Detroit's premier builders, he established the Marina Land Co. in St. Petersburg and battled hard economic times to develop the Alta Marina subdivision (Bahama Shores).
"She certainly inherited her father's knack for real estate," said George Rahdert, a partner with her in a Hernando County ranch for 20 years.
"She was also drawn to beautiful country real estate," said Rahdert, a lawyer who frequently handles First Amendment cases for the Times.
Over the years, she held an interest in the Bay Village Shopping Center and bought and sold several residential lots in southern St. Petersburg, he said. She also owned land in Marion County.
A schoolteacher in suburban Detroit in her youth, Mrs. Mann was instrumental in the development of the high school at Shorecrest Preparatory School in the early 1970s, her family said.
She was a member of the Ivory Club, the Tiger Bay Club and the St. Petersburg Museum of History. She was a former member of the St. Petersburg Junior League and a past president of the Junior League Sustainers.
Survivors include two daughters, Mary Smith, Ridgefield, Conn., and Martha Buttner, St. Petersburg; a brother, James F. Stephenson, Tierra Verde; and five grandchildren, Haley and Kirk Smith, Ridgefield, and William, Hayden and Leigh Buttner, St. Petersburg.
Friends may call today from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Anderson-McQueen Funeral Home, 2201 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. A funeral service will be at 1 p.m. Thursday at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, 738 Pinellas Point Drive S, with burial at Memorial Park Cemetery. The family suggests memorial contributions to the St. Petersburg Museum of History, 335 Second Ave. NE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701 or the SPCA of Pinellas County, 9099 130th Ave. N., Largo, FL 33773.
- Information from Times files was used in this obituary.