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Cecil Farris Bryant (July 26, 1914 – March 1, 2002) was an American politician serving as the 34th governor of Florida. He also served on the United States National Security Council as director of the Office of Emergency Planning during the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who also appointed Bryant chair of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations. Early life and career Bryant was born in Ocala, Marion County, Florida, to Charles Cecil Bryant and Lela Margaret (Farris) Bryant. His paternal grandparents, William Robert Bryant and Amy Emma (Lantz) Bryant, moved to Marion County from Missouri in 1890. Lela Margaret Bryant was the daughter of Oscar A. and Marry M. Farris of Ocala and the sister of Ion Farris, who became a prominent Florida legislator and an unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate in 1916. His mother hoped Farris would follow her brother into politics and succeed to become the governor of Florida. According to Bryant, on the day he was born, his mother “had my father hold me up and she said, hello, governor.” His mother, Bryant said, was the force behind his decision to enter politics. After graduating from Ocala High School, Bryant attended Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1931 to 1932. He pledged Alpha Tau Omega (ATO). Bryant later utilized the ATO social network to help his political campaigns and had ATO brothers on his staff as governor. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Florida in Gainesville in 1935 with a business degree. There he was a member of Florida Blue Key, Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, and the Alpha Kappa Psi business fraternity. Bryant continued his education at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he earned a law degree in 1938. In 1939, unable to find a decent salaried position in a law office, Bryant took a job as an auditor with the office of the Florida comptroller in Tallahassee. It was in Tallahassee that Bryant met his future wife, Julia Burnett. Born on April 26, 1918, in Madison, Florida, Julia was the daughter of Daniel Felix Burnett Jr. and Eunice Lovett Burnett. She attended and graduated from the Florida State College for Women in Tallahassee. Julia was teaching in Tallahassee when she met Farris Bryant. He proposed on their first date; she accepted on their third. They married on September 18, 1940, in Madison and made their home in Ocala. She and Farris had three children, all daughters: Julie, Cecilia, and Adair. Julia played a key role in assisting Farris in his political campaigns and as the first lady of Florida during his governorship. They were married for fifty-six years until her death in 1996. As the United States prepared for the possibility of war in 1941, Bryant joined the newly formed Florida State Guard. Soon after the United States entered World War II, he volunteered to join the U.S. Navy. In May 1942, Bryant won election to represent Marion County in the Florida House of Representatives. However, he gave up his seat to stay in the Navy. Bryant was commissioned as an ensign and served as a gunnery officer on oil tankers and Liberty ships in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean in 1943. In 1944, he was transferred to serve aboard a destroyer doing convoy escort duty. Bryant later served in the Pacific against the Japanese. He ended his service as a lieutenant in 1945. Florida House of Representatives When he returned from the war in 1945, Bryant was determined to regain the Florida House seat that he had given up after joining the Navy. He won election in 1946 and served his first session in the Florida Legislature in 1947 (the legislature had biennial sessions). Bryant served in the Florida House for five more sessions; his last session was in 1957. He sponsored, cosponsored, and supported legislation that led to the expansion of the state's junior college system, the creation of Florida's Turnpike, centralization of state purchasing, and the establishment of the Minimum Foundation Program, which ensured that even the poorest school districts could provide a decent, foundational education for children. And he led the effort to establish the Florida Legislative Council, a research body designed to report on the pros and cons of potential legislation while the legislature was out of session. He was conservative on fiscal matters, supporting economy in government. Influenced by his Methodist faith, Bryant was also conservative on many social issues and supported legislation to limit gambling in the state. His legislative prominence led to his election as speaker of the Florida House of Representatives in 1953. Bryant had fond memories of his time in the Florida House: "I had more fun in those ten years in the political world than I had at any other time." Gubernatorial campaigns 1956 After being elected speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, Bryant was determined to run for governor in 1956. His opponents in the Democratic primary were the sitting governor, LeRoy Collins, former governor Fuller Warren, and wealthy businessman and former National Guard general Sumter Lowry. Bryant hoped to win based on his legislative experience, his advocacy of responsible and restrained government spending, and his support for revision of the Florida Constitution. Governor Collins ran on a similar platform, and both men appealed to Florida's growing business sector. However, the issue of racial integration overshadowed all other issues in the Democratic primary. Governor Collins believed Florida had to follow federal law and accept the US Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education that ruled segregation in public education was inherently unequal and its subsequent decision (Brown II) that the states must move to implement integration in their public schools. He and Bryant insisted that integration should be through lawful means, not through rebellion and violence. Bryant said the question of integration must be approached '"with cool heads, clear minds, and a keen concern for the welfare of all Floridians, black and white."' Sumter Lowry ran as a staunch defender of segregation and opposed any compromise with integration brought on by the Brown decision. He attacked integration as a Communist-backed conspiracy to destroy the white race in America. Lowry accused Collins and Bryant of being soft on segregation and unwilling to defend states' rights against federal intrusion. Early on in his campaign, Bryant stated that he did not believe Florida was ready for racial integration: '“In the homes of Negroes we find different intellectual levels, and moral and sanitary standards. Negroes have come very far in these past 100 years but not as far as they will go in their next 100. I feel that it would not be good for two groups with such different standards to be drawn into direct contact.”’ He hoped that by making his position clear on integration he could move on to campaign on the government reform and pro-growth.... Discover the Donna J Farris popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Donna J Farris books.