Her quiet tenacity led her to congressional heights
TILLIE FOWLER: 1942-2005
By wire services
Published March 3, 2005
JACKSONVILLE - Former U.S. Rep. Tillie Fowler, a champion of increased defense budgets during four terms in Congress, died Wednesday, two days after suffering a brain hemorrhage. She was 62.
Mrs. Fowler, a Republican who was known as the "Steel Magnolia" for her quiet tenacity in Congress, died at St. Vincent's Medical Center, said Tom Alexander, a family spokesman.
He said Mrs. Fowler's husband, Buck, and their daughters, Tillie Fowler of Washington and Elizabeth Fowler of San Francisco, were at her side.
Gov. Jeb Bush called Mrs. Fowler "a great Floridian and committed public servant" who "was dedicated to making the lives of Floridians better. She will be missed." He ordered flags at state government buildings to be flown at half staff through Mrs. Fowler's funeral on Friday.
U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert said, "Tillie will be remembered as an effective legislator because she always kept her word to her colleagues and constituents."
Mrs. Fowler was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1992. She pledged during her campaign to seek only four terms and in 2000 kept her promise, declining to seek re-election despite being the most powerful woman in Congress. She was vice chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, placing her fifth in the GOP hierarchy.
Soft-spoken and refined, she was once described by Working Woman magazine as a "diminutive Southern belle, as tough as an old Marine."
After leaving Congress in January 2001, Mrs. Fowler was mentioned as a possible secretary of the Navy in the Bush administration, but instead joined the national law firm of Holland & Knight in its Washington office. Since 2003, Mrs. Fowler had been chairwoman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, which advises Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. She was also the chairwoman of the committee that investigated alleged sexual assaults at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Mrs. Fowler represented Jacksonville as a lobbyist on military base realignment and closures in 2003 and 2004. She had been scheduled to attend a meeting at City Hall Monday morning to discuss the upcoming round of base closings.
The former Tillie Kidd, a Milledgeville, Ga., native, was the daughter of former Georgia state Sen. Culver Kidd.
She called her father "a progressive good old boy, if there is such a thing." He pushed her to pursue a profession, she once told a reporter, because he had seen widows during the Depression unable to earn a living. He observed that she was naturally argumentative, and it was decided she should go to law school.
After graduating from Emory University law school in the mid 1960s, she worked three years for Georgia Rep. Robert Stephens and served in the White House as general counsel in the Office of Consumer Affairs from 1970 to 1971, alongside Elizabeth Dole, now a U.S. senator from North Carolina.
After Mrs. Fowler moved to Jacksonville with her family, she grew active in volunteer activities, creating a base of power for a successful run for Jacksonville City Council. She served seven years on the council.
Public services will be held Friday at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Jacksonville.
The Associated Press and the Washington Post contributed to this report.