A service will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at Tallahassee’s Faith Presbyterian Church for former Florida first lady Rhea Chiles, who died this weekend at her home in Anna Maria Island.
The widow of the late Gov. Lawton Chiles was 84. Rhea and Lawton Chiles, who met when they were students at the University of Florida, were married from 1951 until his death in 1998.
Lawton Chiles considered Rhea Chiles his political partner. It was her idea for Chiles, then a Democratic state senator from Lakeland, to walk the length of the state as part of his run for the U. S. Senate in 1970.
As a result, he became known as “Walkin’ Lawton” and won the election, serving three terms in Washington.
He was then elected governor in 1990 and died shortly before his second term was slated to end.
Rhea Chiles is survived by her four children — Tandy Chiles, Lawton (“Bud”) Chiles III, Ed Chiles and Rhea Gay Chiles — along with a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Children’s Home Society or the Lawton Chiles Foundation.