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Politics

She fought for environment, women's rights

Mary Grizzle is remembered as a state leader who won the respect of both parties.

By CRAIG BASSE AND WILL VAN SANT
Published November 10, 2006

Long before ecology became a household word, Mary R. Grizzle wanted clean water in polluted Tampa Bay.

The first Republican woman elected to the Florida Legislature, she was perhaps best known as the co-sponsor, with state Sen. Harold S. Wilson, of a 1972 bill that set strict standards on sewage dumped into the bay.

Fifteen years later, she pushed through a law requiring that treated wastewater be almost clean enough to drink.

Mrs. Grizzle, one of Pinellas County's most successful politicians, died Thursday (Nov. 9, 2006) at her North Redington Beach townhouse. She was 85.

Gov.-elect Charlie Crist noted Mrs. Grizzle's efforts to clean up Tampa Bay, calling her "a tremendous leader, and a great Floridian."

"She was a pioneer in the environmental area. I loved her for that and so much more. It's so sad to hear of her passing," he said.

Gov. Jeb Bush said Mrs. Grizzle cared deeply for her community and the state. "Florida has lost a true lady and an effective leader, and we mourn her loss."

An Ohio farm girl, Mrs. Grizzle won a seat in the state House in 1963 and moved to the state Senate in 1978, where she served until 1992. Former state Sen. S. Curtis "Curt" Kiser, now a lobbyist in Tallahassee, said Mrs. Grizzle was "very quiet and reserved most of the time and you really had to see her in action to see how many things she did for Pinellas County and the state."

Pinellas cities and the county had fought the clean water legislation, which stood to cost them more, but Mrs. Grizzle prevailed.

"Mary was ahead of her time," Kiser said. "She just stood her ground. She was just a tiger."

A supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment, Mrs. Grizzle also worked on legislation to allow married women to buy property or start businesses without first getting their husbands' permission. Kiser called the Married Women Property Rights Act a landmark and said, "Most people had no idea that it had to be passed as a separate piece of legislation."

Mrs. Grizzle also sponsored legislation admitting women to jury duty, providing equal pay for equal work, providing maternity leave for teachers and requiring state licensing for child care centers.

The child care licensing bill was the most difficult to pass in her legislative career. "They thought we wanted to make all the kids communists," Mrs. Grizzle recalled in November 2003, when she was inducted into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame.

As a leader in the environmental and women's rights movements, Mrs. Grizzle earned the respect and admiration of Democrats, Kiser said.

"Mary Grizzle was one of the quietest lawmakers serving Pinellas County when I moved to Tallahassee in 1986," recalled Lucy Morgan, retired Tallahassee bureau chief for the St. Petersburg Times. "But she was also one of the strongest, fighting for strong environmental protections and women's rights."

U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, the veteran congressman who won a 19th term in Tuesday's elections, recalled that he and Mrs. Grizzle became good friends before either had run for public office.

"She was a very hard-working legislator. She was just very steady. She really never let up," Young said.

Born Aug. 19, 1921, at Waterloo, Ohio, she grew up on a farm where her family raised corn and soybeans and ran a small general store. After graduating from high school, she studied shorthand and bookkeeping at a business college in Portsmouth, Ohio, and worked for an insurance company.

When World War II broke out, she went to Washington, D.C., to a job in the Office of Energy, which became the War Production Board, issuing certificates for fuel allocations to war plants.

In Washington, she met Ben Grizzle, a petroleum consultant. They married and lived in Washington for another year before moving to Florida in 1949. He died in 1961.

Always interested in politics, and with six children in school, Mrs. Grizzle soon went from being president of the PTA to president of the Florida Federation of Republican Women.

Reapportionment of state House seats in 1963 gave the soft-spoken, rather bashful Mrs. Grizzle her chance to run for the Legislature. With her children helping by handing out fliers at shopping centers, she beat Charles Rainey. Her strength at the polls made her the senior Republican member of the House and gave her seats on the appropriations, education and rules and calendar committees.

After eight terms in the House, she moved to the Senate in 1978, when GOP incumbent Henry Sayler vacated his seat. Often honored, Mrs. Grizzle was selected Outstanding Woman of the Year by the Largo Business and Professional Women's Club in 1966.

In June 1988, the Legislature approved the suggestion to attach her name to a $13-million state office building near Ridge and Ulmerton roads in Largo. The Mary Grizzle State Office Building opened in 1992.

Mrs. Grizzle was a past president of the Altrusa Club of Clearwater and a member of the Women's Club of Clearwater, Largo Business and Professional Women, Clearwater League of Women Voters and the National Society of Arts and Letters.

Survivors include a son, Henry, of Inverness; five daughters, Polley Ann Ramirez, of Seminole, Lorena Grizzle, of Largo, Mary A. Grizzle, of North Redington Beach, Betty J. Grizzle, of Miami, and Jeanne Barber, of Clearwater; a brother, John Rehme, of South Webster, Ohio; two sisters, Virginia Miller and Maxine Oliver, both of Springfield, Ohio; and four grandchildren.

A memorial service is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday at Moss-Feaster Funeral Homes, Serenity Gardens Chapel, 13401 Indian Rocks Road, Largo.

Aaron Sharockman contributed to this obituary, which includes information from Times files.

[Last modified November 10, 2006, 05:34:01]