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.