Snooty was part of our Bradenton family. We thought he’d live forever

It’s probably safe to say that no community in America has been more deeply attached to a single animal than Bradenton was to Snooty. He was the face of the city and the mascot for the county. But more than that, to people who lived here, he was a friend.

That’s not just hyperbole that people are using because he just died. People around here grew up with Snooty. They’d visit and interact with him the way people might visit and interact with an uncle or a cousin.

And the feeling has been essentially universal. Snooty’s death is devastating. No matter who you are, if you live in Bradenton, you took the news hard. You took it personally.

“The one bright thing is that there’s nothing political about it,” said Kelly Wynn Woodland, a teacher and actor who has lived in Bradenton since the day she was born. “People are kind of divided, but we’re all together in this.”

Woodland remembers visiting Snooty on school field trips when she was a kid, and later, when she became an actor, being hired to perform with other actors for Snooty-related events.

“He would always play along with it,” she said. “He was actually an improv artist, for real.”

Grant Jefferies is another Bradenton native, who spent most of his working life as photographer for the Bradenton Herald. A visit to Snooty is one of the first things he recalls from his childhood.

“I just remember when I was young, who knows how old, 4 or 5, going to see him when he was in the small tank at the municipal pier,” Jefferies said. “It’s one of my first memories. Snooty and the shrunken heads.”

Jefferies photographed Snooty countless times over the years.

“He would come out of the water and he would extend his paw to you,” Now, Jefferies says, “you feel like you’ve lost a friend.”

Marcus Lindemann, who teaches marine biology at State College of Florida, didn’t have a life-long relationship with Snooty. Lindemann came here from Germany in 1996. Snooty was one of the first “people” he met in this country. When his nieces and nephews came to visit, he loved bringing them to see Snooty.

“My introduction to America was Bradenton and Snooty,” he said. “God, I’m going to miss him. What a guy.”

Lindemann pointed out that although it’s not that unusual to see a manatee when you live in Florida, you usually see just its snout or its back or a blurry underwater outline of its body as it swims in the bay. Snooty gave Bradenton residents and visitors a chance to take a long, relaxing look at a manatee swimming and socializing. He gave us a chance, Lindemann said, not just to know one manatee, but to understand manatees in general a little better.

Robyn Bell, the director of the SCF Bradenton Symphony, came here nine years ago. Her most vivid memory of Snooty is an event she went to about a year ago, when she and some friends had a painting party in which everyone painted a portrait of Snooty, with a little help from a real artist. There was something magical about Snooty that brought out her inner visual artist, Bell said.

“I’m a different kind of artist,” she said. “I can’t draw a stick figure. But I could paint Snooty.”

He was more than a manatee, more than a symbol for the city.

“You don’t even think of him as an animal,” Bell said. “He’s a Bradenton citizen. That’s the way we all think of him.”

It wasn’t just the suddenness of Snooty’s death that shocked people. There was something about him that seemed eternal.

“He was just so well cared-for,” Jefferies said. “You just thought he was always going to be there.”

Woodland echoed those thoughts.

“He was never sick,” she said. “It seemed like he was never going to die.”

Snooty’s personality was kind of a cross between a puppy and your favorite uncle. A lot of people spoke of him in those terms, especially long-time Bradentonians.

“You just had this feeling,” Woodland said, “that he was part of your family.”

This story was originally published July 24, 2017 at 4:52 PM with the headline "Snooty was part of our Bradenton family. We thought he’d live forever."