Former mayor and lawmaker Toby Holland dies at 92. He was colorful and memorable
John Joseph “Toby” Holland Jr., former Palmetto mayor and state lawmaker known for his larger-than-life personality, died Tuesday, June 22, 2021, at age 92.
Holland served as mayor of the City of Palmetto from 1975 to 1981, and as District 67 state representative from 1984 to 1992.
“He was an icon. He loved life, his community and his family. A lot of people don’t realize the magnitude of the foundation he laid for this community. He was special to all of us,” Palmetto Mayor Shirley Groover Bryant said.
“He was forward thinking. I don’t think he realized how much he was helping future generations,” Bryant said, citing Palmetto’s modern wastewater treatment plant that went online during his term as mayor.
“Our flags will be at half staff for his funeral” Bryant said.
Holland was vice president and founder of Founders Life Assurance Company, served as Manatee County’s first building inspector, was owner/operator of Holland Insurance, and as owner/operator of Holland Construction.
He was instrumental in locating the Bradenton Area Convention and Civic Center in Palmetto and founding Emerson Point State Park, where the welcome center carries his name.
A close friend, Ralph Haben, former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, said that it was Holland who got him started in state politics, and who served as his first campaign manager.
“He was the most unforgettable person I ever knew. He was truly unique. He was a great athlete, incredibly smart, and had the biggest personality of anyone I ever knew. I would have never become speaker of the House of Representatives if not for him,” Haben said.
Holland loved people and had a heart for children. Where some might look away from a child who had mental or physical problems, Holland had an impulse to comfort them, Haben said.
“He was so unusual and so special in every way. I am going to miss him,” Haben said.
Holland’s son, John, said his father lived a full life, and knew no strangers. Until recently, he was still riding his motorcycle every day and flying his airplane, having logged an estimated 15,000 hours.
“He was comfortable in the governor’s office or with his hillbilly friends in the mountains. I have seen him with both,” John Holland said. “My dad was very conservative, very honest, ethical, and very opinionated.
“He was very proud of securing the funding for the civic center via Ralph Haben,” John said.
Holland was also known as a colorful character, favoring wearing overalls, and walking his pot-bellied pig, which he sometimes took on flights.
You could often hear him before you saw him, even though he was a teetotaler.
“They broke the mold on him. He was the life of the party, and he was unfiltered,” John Holland said.
Holland was born Nov. 30, 1928, to the late John Joseph Holland Sr. and Verda Huntley Holland in Long Beach, Calif. At age 5, Toby moved to Palmetto to be raised by his aunt and uncle, Florence and Robert Kemp during the Great Depression. He attended Palmetto High School until it was closed in 1947 and graduated from Manatee High School in 1948, where he was an all-state center on the football team.
He hung up his football cleats during his freshman year at the University of Tampa to elope with his high school sweetheart, Jean Willingham.
Early in life he worked at Kemp’s Grocery of Palmetto as a delivery boy, and later as an insurance salesman.
He was a decades long member of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, a member of the Hernando DeSoto Historical Society, and served on many boards of directors, including Palmetto Federal Bank & Trust. He was also a member of Red Hill Methodist Church in Red Hill, N.C.
Survivors include his wife of 26 years, Mari Holland; son John (Susan); daughters Susan (Tom) Hume and Julie Vincent; stepchildren Dar Buri, Jesse Buri and Andrea Brooks; ten grandchildren, Bradley (Elizabeth) Hume, Nikki (David) Hunt, Jay Holland, Kaitlyn Sussex, Sydney Vincent, Taylor Vincent, Danielle Vincent, Gabe Buri, Mason Smith and Sari Buri; and seven great-grandchildren.
A celebration of life service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, June 25, with visitation at 10 a.m. at the First Baptist Church of Palmetto, 1020 4th St. W., Palmetto. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Moffitt Cancer Center Foundation, 12902 Magnolia Drive, MBC-FOUND Tampa, FL 33612.
Arrangements are by Griffith-Cline Funeral and Cremation Services.
This story was originally published June 24, 2021 at 1:59 PM.
