Broxson needs no rocking chair
Longtime public servant, 76, still hopes to serve people in some capacity
BY PAM BRANNON Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

Joe Culpepper/Gulf Breeze News John Broxson was Sheriff of Santa Rosa County before many of us were born. He later served in the state House, Senate and on the County Commission.

First of a two-part series

W hen John Broxson of Gulf Breeze turns over his county commission

seat to newly elected Lane Lynchard on Thursday, Nov. 13, he has no plans to 'retire' from public service to the proverbial 'rocking chair.'

"I don't know what will come next, but I don't believe my days of productivity are over," Broxson, 76, said last week. "I will work in whatever public-service projects come along wherever I can help."

Broxson has been helping shape Florida politics since he was first appointed Sheriff of Santa Rosa County in 1959.

The Santa Rosa County Commission seat he has held since 2004, serving as Chairman for the past year, was just the latest in a lengthy resume of public service - from Sheriff, to the state House of Representatives and the Florida Senate, to serving as chairman of the Lottery Commission, as well as many local community boards and commissions.

"Of course, I didn't decide to take on any new job or challenge without talking it over and being in full agreement with Chris," he said. "None of the work could have been done without her support - either public or in our private life and businesses."

His wife of 54 years, Christina, said neither of them had ever considered making a major decision that would affect the family without discussing it with each other first.

"John would never arbitrarily decide to run for an office or accept an appointment without us talking about it," she said. "And the same goes for me, too. We have always just worked as partners."

Chris recalls what a sudden change it was in their lifestyle when her husband was appointed Sheriff of Santa Rosa County 'way back' in 1959.

"We were living in the Birmingham, Ala., area and pastoring a church. We went from the quiet ministry to a very dangerous situation of John becoming Sheriff, with people threatening his life. It was quite a shock to the system, and a very scary time. Santa Rosa County was raw back then!" she said.

John said his father was elected Sheriff in 1954. That was the same year John and Christina were married. At that time, John had earned a bachelor's degree after graduating from Pensacola High School, and he did some school teaching in Alabama.

"My dad had run for county commission for the first time in 1936 and served two terms," John recalled. "Then he decided to run for Sheriff in 1954 and was elected. He had always told me that whenever he decided to retire from being the Sheriff, he wanted me to come back home and run for the job. But I didn't think much about it at the time."

By 1959, the Broxsons were pastoring a church in Alabama and had just started their own insurance business.

"We already had three of our five children by then," John said. "We were doing really well. The business was going good, and we were peaceful and happy doing what we were doing."

But their life took an unexpected turn when John's dad was killed in an auto accident in 1959. The governor allowed John's mother to take over the job as sheriff for a short time, but then appointed John as the county's sheriff.

"We had kept our voting rights here, so we moved back to Milton and took over the job of sheriff. I was only 27 years old," he said.

"(John) had to go to every crime scene back then, and there were nights that he would call and tell me he was on his way home so I could turn off the porch light - so he would not be a target coming into the house. Some folks were not too happy with him for some arrests he had made," Chris recalls. "I worried about him all the time."

But John said shortly after taking the office he had to start organizing a campaign for the next election to keep the job.

"I served as sheriff from 1959 to 1961," he said. "I was beaten in that election, with two people running against me - my dad's chief deputy and one of the other deputies. And later the fellows who organized the campaign told me how they beat me - by 168 votes. Back then polling places were not very organized and not well-supervised, and they told me they stood outside and offered some people things like free cigarettes if they would vote for the guy running against me. It was a learning experience."

John had always been interested in state politics. He had a relative, Clark Broxson, who served in the Florida House of Representatives from 1857- 1861.

"I told my dad once that I would maybe like to run for the Florida House of Representatives, and he always said 'Oh, no, don't run for state politics - that is when you'll lose your integrity,' " John said. "But I decided to give it a try when I lost the election for sheriff. So I ran for a state House seat in 1962 - and won.

"What a time to get involved! The 60's were very chaotic for Florida politics, and very busy. I had no idea what I was getting into."

In those days, he said, the Florida Legislature was supposed to meet once every two years for 60 days only.

"And we received $100 a month salary while we were there, and $25 a day per diem to eat. We also got 10 cents a mile to come home once a week, if we wanted to. But the 1960s was when the issue of reapportionment came up, so it meant a whole lot more time spent there than 60 days every two years. It was months at a time of special sessions," he said.

"So there I was, in Tallahassee, and here Chris was, trying to run a family business we had started here, with the kids to take care of, and we had no money. But we knew we were shaping Florida's future, and it took a lot of hard work."

"From 1895 right through the early 1960s there were always 95 members in the Florida House of Representatives," John said. "But because of a decision brought down by the Supreme Court saying 'one man one vote,' we had to change our districts to be more representative. That meant fighting over reapportionment. And, oh, the battles. There were some fellows who had been there for a long time who didn't want to give up their power."

Chris said it was another scary time for the family.

"The mid-1960s was right during the heat of the Civil Rights movement in Florida, and it was hot in Tallahassee, for sure - in more ways than one," she said.

Chris recalls taking the children to see their father in Tallahassee many weekends when he could not make it home for weeks at a time because the legislative sessions were ongoing right through the weekend.

"There were no expressways, so it was back roads and highways all the way between here and Tallahassee," she said. "We would go to see him and drive right up to some very large, very loud and angry Civil Rights marches happening right outside the Capitol," she said. "The first year he served, he stayed in a little motel in Apalachicola for $5 a night every time he went to Tallahassee. It was a really nice little motel, too. Tallahassee was nothing back then - just a little town with not much of anything there.

"Then during the summer of the Constitutional Revisions, John stayed in a little hot trailer, with no air conditioning."

Next week: Broxson sees opportunity in Gulf Breeze.