Honoring a “great statesman” and family man

Brothers Buddy, left, and George MacKay, lost their father early in life and had to take over the elder MacKay’s businesses and land holdings. [Photo courtesy MacKay family]

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Posted January 4, 2025 | By Susan Smiley-Height, [email protected]

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Kenneth “Buddy” MacKay Jr.’s strong work ethic and compassion for his fellow man was innate, as he was born into a family of high achievers who cared about others. He learned early and well from his father, who died tragically in a commercial airplane crash in 1964. That left a young Buddy and his older brother George to take charge of their father’s businesses and land holdings, including citrus groves.

That dedication to hard work and service to others took Buddy MacKay, who was born in Marion County on March 22, 1933, to the lofty halls of the state legislature, the office of lieutenant governor and even to the governor’s mansion for a brief time. MacKay gently passed away at his home on Lake Weir during an afternoon nap on Dec. 31, 2024, at the age of 91.

MacKay served in the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s. He earned a law degree from the University of Florida and opened a practice in Ocala. He threw his hat into the political ring and served as a state representative, state senator, congressman, lieutenant governor and as the 42nd governor of Florida for a few weeks. He also was a special envoy to the Americas for President Bill Clinton. He was a devoted family man and he and his wife Anne have four sons, 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

“They were both from families that had lived in Ocala for at least one generation,” recalled his eldest son, Ken MacKay, 64, of how the couple met. “My mom was four years younger than my dad. They met at First Presbyterian Church, where my dad was teaching Sunday school, and my mom was in the class. They celebrated their 65th anniversary this past June.”

The MacKay clan was always a close bunch and enjoyed spending time at their home on 8th Street in Ocala, at the family farm in Weirsdale and at the house on Lake Weir that was built by Buddy’s grandfather. That home is where Buddy and Anne moved when he retired from politics.

“This was an old home that was built by my great-grandfather at the very end of the century, in the late 1800s, early 1900s. I think he owned it up until the ‘20s or so and then it went out of our family for 10 years or so and then my dad’s father purchased it back and it’s been in the family ever since then. My dad and mom renovated it when he retired. That’s where he passed away,” said Ken, who lives next door.

POLITICAL CAREER
During his political career, Buddy MacKay focused on many of the challenges facing Florida in the ‘60s and ‘70s, from education to racial justice to the environment.

“He was known for his honesty and sincerity but was not afraid to step into controversial issues,” noted a news release on behalf of the family.

MacKay said in his memoir, “How Florida Happened: The Political Education of Buddy MacKay,” that, “In my view, standing for something and joining the dialogue is the best way to participate and a lot more satisfying than standing for nothing or simply dodging tough decisions in order to gain or hold office.”

Notes on the website for the book state that, “When Florida governor Lawton Chiles died unexpectedly on December 12, 1998, less than one month before Jeb Bush was to assume the office, it was left to Chiles’s lieutenant governor, Buddy MacKay, to step in for twenty-three days and run the state. ‘I take no great pleasure in this,’ MacKay stated at his initial news conference, with good reason. Roughly one month prior, he had lost a brutal gubernatorial campaign as the Democratic nominee to Bush, meaning he now had to officiate over the investiture of a political opponent.”

The memoir “details his experiences in and influences upon Florida and national politics. As an officeholder in the Florida Legislature, the United States Congress, and at the highest levels of the executive branch of state government, he was a much sought-after source, frequently quoted by members of the press because of his ability to explain issues and enlighten the public in short, easily understandable terms.”

The materials released by his family state that MacKay said, “We were largely successful in reforming and modernizing Florida’s outmoded government.”

Although he was disappointed that Gov. Chiles and he were unable to enact needed conservation measures with unprecedented statewide growth, MacKay led a commission to improve public schools, helped transform the Department of Commerce to Enterprise Florida and oversaw disaster recovery after Hurricane Andrew, the document noted.

A Florida News Service article stated that Ron Sachs, who served as communications director in the Chiles administration, said, “Gov. MacKay was one of Florida’s greatest leaders and statesmen, with a career of service that benefited all the people of Florida.”

The statement issued by the MacKay family noted that, at the national level, “possibly his biggest environmental triumph during his first term in Congress was the deauthorization of the Cross Florida Barge Canal west of Palatka. That action laid the groundwork for what is now the 70,000-acre protected greenbelt known as the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway. Into his 90s, MacKay actively supported a critical action to further strengthen this region of the Florida Wildlife Corridor to restore the Ocklawaha River and Silver Springs by breaching the Rodman/Kirkpatrick Dam. He and his wife hosted a front porch summit in 2019 that reinvigorated efforts to free the Ocklawaha River.”

Cliff Stearns, a former congressman and longtime Ocalan, offered these words about MacKay: “My family and I offer our respect and prayers with the loss of this genuine leader and great family man. Although we were from different political parties, we were friends, and I admired his many accomplishments and his entire family. He had a humbleness about him that was so authentic as a leader and a great sense of humor, with that sparkle in his eye that made him so likeable.”

Donna Blanton, of Tallahassee, is a retired attorney with experience in civil litigation, government and administrative law.

“I knew Buddy mainly in the ‘80s and spent most of my time with him when he was running for the U.S. Senate in 1988. I was a reporter for the ‘Orlando Sentinel’ at the time, based in Tallahassee. He was the most well-intentioned politician I ever met while covering politics for the ‘Sentinel’ from 1978-1989. He genuinely wanted to serve the people of Florida and make our state a better place to live for all of its citizens. They don’t make them like that anymore,” Blanton offered.

Deborah “Debby” Kearney was the deputy general counsel in the executive office of the governor during most of MacKay’s tenure as lieutenant governor.

“MacKay was warm, likeable and fun. At the same time, he was a hard worker and very results oriented. He was a pleasure to work with. My memories include participating in meetings with large numbers of people and observing Mr. MacKay work the room and build consensus. When he accepted a task, he got the job done. And he accepted a lot of tasks. I can’t recall any lieutenant governor before or since taking on as much responsibility as Buddy MacKay did.
“His service harkens back to a time when the art of politics involved consensus building and negotiation and therefore the government was able to accomplish so much more. He was very good at that. To me, his legacy is that negotiation matters. And also that smart, hardworking, caring, honest politicians do exist and can make very important differences in our lives.”

ACTIVISM IN MARION COUNTY
In Ocala and Marion County, MacKay was known for his work for racial justice, an interest that started during his University of Florida law school days. In the 1960s he and his law partner helped get two school board members elected, who, along with Superintendent Mac Dunwoody, led Marion County to become one of north Florida’s first integrated school districts. The effort went smoothly without any community violence, the material from the family noted.

“MacKay’s work did not stop with the school system. He was bothered that the black side of the city of Ocala was not treated equally to white taxpayers. He spearheaded a successful annexation project with former City Councilman Lorenzo Edwards to bring public services and infrastructure to west Ocala, a large minority community,” it stated.

At First Presbyterian Church, he and a small study group helped launch Fort King Presbyterian Church, which “became the first integrated protestant church in Marion County and is actively involved in racial justice issues today.”

FAMILY MEMORIES
Ken MacKay owned a title insurance business, then worked for a national underwriter. John is a family practice physician in Tallahassee. Ben is an educator and teaches advanced placement history to 11th and 12th grade students in Jacksonville. Andy is a hardware/software engineer in California.

Ken retired in 2017 and continues to run the family farm in Weirsdale, where they raise cattle and grow about 60 acres of citrus. He recalled that he was about 8 years old when he got his first taste of politics, tagging along as his dad hit the campaign trail.

“He got into politics in 1968 and ran for a state representative race. Back then, it was about trying to get publicity any way you could—going to county fairs and standing on street corners, doing Kiwanis Club and Rotary Club events—and he took me to a lot of those. His primary motivation was racial equality and integration,” he remembered.

He recalled that when his dad had his law practice in Ocala and worked “part-time” in politics, he “would be home every night and then be gone two or three months out of the year, but generally he would leave on Monday and be home on Thursday afternoon. In those early years, he was very involved, but Mom had more of the duties of getting the homework done and the day in and day out types of things.”

He said his father loved being outdoors and had a great affinity for gardening, particularly with the camellias at their home in Ocala, as well as for quail hunting and water sports such as boating and skiing on Lake Weir.
His father, he noted, was not a picky eater but did insist on ice cream pretty much every night and liked to wear plaid shirts.

“I think that started before he met Lawton Chiles because they both did that. I think it was an easy way to not have to worry about whether things matched or not, but also a folksy way of dressing where you could mix in with most anybody and they both wanted that. I think it was more genuine than political, because my dad really just loved people and probably had more of a liking for people who were trying really hard but weren’t necessarily there yet,” he shared.

As for advice from his father, Ken said he told him when they were speaking about someone’s death, “To always remember it’s nice to say words but when you really want to convey something with someone, you’ve just got to make the time to be there.”

He recalled with humor that his father never really embraced technology.

“He grew up as a lawyer, so he almost always had a legal secretary and someone to type things out or address things or answer the phone so you knew who was calling. When cellphones came out, he saw that as something for him to make out-bound calls on. He would carry it with him and turn it off. I was like, ‘Dad, what if we want to reach you?’ He was like, ‘Well, you come find me.’

“He was almost always smiling or listening. He was pretty quiet by nature,” Ken added.

He said that in the last 10 or 15 years, if you asked his father how he was doing, “He would almost always say, ‘Life is good, man, life is good.’”

He said of the day his dad father passed away at home, “If Dad wrote a script for the way he would like to leave this life, this went according to that script. Everybody had gathered on Sunday for a Christmas dinner because we couldn’t do it on the actual day. All of the grandchildren except one were there. He had a great time and on Monday spent some time at our family farm and loved that. Tuesday, he had lunch with everybody who was still around, and he went back to take a nap, which he did every day since I can remember, and just didn’t wake up.”

Buddy MacKay was predeceased by his parents, Kenneth and Julia, younger brother Alfred and daughter-in-law Juliette MacKay. He is survived by brother George, sister Elizabeth, wife Anne, sons Ken (Cindy), John (Kym), Ben (Michele) and Andy, grandchildren Mac (Maddie), Ted, Lilli, Sally, Nate, Shelby, Emily, Genevieve, Leander and Vivienne, and great-grandchildren Kodah, Kai, Annie and Grace.

A celebration life will be held at 1 p.m. Jan. 15 Fort King Presbyterian Church at 13 NE 36th Ave., Ocala. A reception will follow. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Buddy’s honor to the Florida Wildflower Foundation, Interfaith Emergency Services or the church.