Nora Patterson, who served 20 years on Sarasota county and city commissions, dies at 79

Nora Patterson, who moved to Sarasota with her husband John in 1970 and spent two decades in elected office, died Thursday at age 79.

Patterson served 16 years on the Sarasota County Commission and eight on the Sarasota City Commission.

Jon Thaxton, whose time on the commission included six years of overlap with Patterson, called  his late colleague an unquestionable public servant in the same style as the late Nancy Detert, who died in April 2023.

“No one ever doubted the sincerity of her decision,” Thaxton said. “They might have disagreed with her decision but Nora’s decisions were always made on facts and with the purpose of building a better community.”

Prior to politics, Patterson led what her husband called an eclectic career, including teaching school in rural Dixie County and Lincoln High School in Gainesville, while they lived in a mobile home and he went to law school at the University of Florida.

“She was an investor, she was a business person, she was a teacher, and she was also a Realtor before she first ran for public office in 1991,” Patterson said.

An avid environmentalist, Patterson was honored by Sarasota County in 2015 when Bay Island Park was renamed Nora Patterson Bay Island Park.

An unlikely couple

Leonore “Nora” Kerz was the daughter of a noted Broadway lighting and scenic designer Leo Kerz, and attended the Brearley School, an all-girls private school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. She later matriculated at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

“She grew  up in something so different from my humble background that it was pretty amazing to me,” said John Patterson,  a graduate of Leon High School in Tallahassee, who also matriculated at Duke.

Both were active in the Civil Rights movement and the two met through a mutual friend.

"Our first or second date was voter registration in eastern North Carolina," Patterson said.

"Nora was followed by a pick-up truck with gun racks and the good-old boys," he added. "She was fearless, she was really fearless."

The two married and moved to Gainesville, where he studied law and Nora, who received a bachelor's degree in psychology at Duke, earned a master’s in education.

She also taught at Old Town Elementary in Dixie County and later was one of the few white teachers at Lincoln High School in Gainesville.

The couple lived in a house trailer in a trailer park, Patterson said.

They later moved to Lakeland, where he worked as a researcher for an appellate judge and she taught for a year. Then, on the advice of the judge, they moved to Sarasota for John’s law career in 1970.

Establishing roots in Sarasota

Their daughter Kim was born in 1971 and Nora went on to purchase Greenwood Garden Center on Osprey Avenue with Jane Walden Miller.

They sold the business in 1979 but still own the real estate.

Nora taught at the Out of Door Academy for a year, then embarked on her career as a real estate broker and investor.

In 1991, she won a seat on the Sarasota City Commission, where she served for eight years.

In 1998, Patterson won the first of four terms on the Sarasota County Commission.

“Nora was really unique as a politician. She was very analytical. She looked not only at the positive side but also the unintended consequences,” Patterson said. “She loved to talk about it and debate it and thought that better decisions came from that – which I believe is true, too.”

Two of Patterson’s former County Commission colleagues – Thaxton and Shannon Staub – agreed with that assessment.

“Whether you agreed with her vote or not, you know that it got a fair hearing and she’d given it a lot of thought,” Staub said. “That’s all you could ask of a commissioner.”

Thaxton said when he found himself in opposition to Patterson, it prompted soul searching as to whether it was just a philosophical difference or if she was seeing something he had missed.

Staub added that Patterson had a great sense of humor that most didn’t see when she was on the dais because she was always so even-keeled.

By 2000, Kimberly Patterson Murphy, who graduated from Syracuse University in 1993, established herself as an artist and fabric designer but died from complications related to leukemia in November 2000. Her parents established the Kimberly Patterson Leukemia Research Fund along with the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, with money going to the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where she received treatment.

Patterson’s public career as a candidate came to an end in 2016 during a bitter and divisive primary campaign for the District 23 state Senate seat eventually won by current U.S. Rep. Greg Steube.

Her longtime stance as a moderate Republican did not appeal to the more conservative Republicans flocking to the polls in support of Donald Trump.

“In hindsight, that was almost a blessing as she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s the next year,” John Patterson said.

Embracing the Gulf Coast life

To relax, John and Nora Patterson loved to get out on the water – whether it be Sarasota Bay or trips to the Florida Keys.

“They were both passionate lovers of the marine environment,” Thaxton said. “She was a great fisherperson – Nora and I talked fishing all the time.

“I think Nora’s passion for fishing was driven by just getting on the water and enjoying the water,” he later added. “I think fishing for Nora was just an excuse to get on  the water.”

On the dais, that translated to a desire to preserve public access to the waterfront.

County commissioners from that era have kept in touch, nurturing a bond that develops from serving together.

“Over the years, you practically live with the rest of our commissioners when you’re elected,” said Staub, who added that they became great friends.

“She and John led a great life, she did a lot of good things, she was a good commissioner,” Staub said. “She’s going to be missed by her friends and I hope that people will remember all the good things she did as commissioner. She did give it 150%, I'll tell you that.”

Robert Toale and Sons Funeral Home at Palms Memorial Park is handling arrangements. No services are scheduled at this time.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Nora Patterson served 20 years as Sarasota city, county commissioner