Epilogue: Patricia Bailey-Snook changed political landscape in Pinellas Park

PINELLAS PARK Saying her goal was to help people, Patricia Louise Bailey-Snook volunteered to serve on a Pinellas Park advisory board.

When she retired from political life more than 30 years later, Mrs. Bailey-Snook left behind a series of firsts first woman to serve on the Pinellas Park City Council, first woman to serve as vice mayor and the first woman to serve as mayor. She also served a term in the state House of Representatives before returning to serve on the council.

Along the way, she helped hundreds of people, not the least through the Angel Fund. The fund, which she talked her fellow council members into creating, is a nonprofit organization supported by Pinellas Park residents and businesses to provide emergency help to pay for basic expenses that are critical to financial survival, like rent and mortgage payments, utilities and child-care costs.

Mrs. Bailey-Snook, 78, died Dec. 8, 2014 in Sumterville.

"Pat was a good council member," said former Pinellas Park Mayor Cecil Bradbury, who served beside Mrs. Bailey-Snook for years. "She had a lot of influence on the lives of the citizens of Pinellas Park, especially the younger lives. . . . I just hope the people of Pinellas Park remember her as fondly as I do."

Mrs. Bailey-Snook was born in Harrodsburg, Ky., but spent most of her life in the Pinellas Park-St. Petersburg area. She became involved in local politics in the late 1960s or early 1970s and was first elected to the council in 1972. At that time, the vice mayor and mayor were both chosen by the council and, eventually, she won both positions. (Vice mayor is still an appointed office.) She briefly left the council from 1982-84 to serve in the state House. She returned to the council in 1987 and served continuously until her retirement in 2008. While on the council, she served as a member of many countywide boards including the Metropolitan Planning Organization, Pinellas Planning Council, Pinellas County Cooperative Extension Service, Pinellas Affordable Housing Coalition, and the Family and Children's committees for the National League of Cities.

"She loved it. She loved being involved," her son, Michael Bailey, said. In becoming involved in politics, "she just found her calling. You could tell she found her lifelong love and destiny."

Those early days were rough for a woman in Pinellas Park politics, he said. His mother learned to stand her ground in debates, even when she came home bruised and bloodied from the battle. Literally. Bailey said he remembers her coming home from a council meeting one night with a bloody shin from where someone had kicked her under the table.

"A grown man had kicked her in the shin," he said.

It was a lesson Mrs. Bailey-Snook learned well. When Rick Butler was first elected to the council, he sat next to Mrs. Bailey-Snook.

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Epilogue: Patricia Bailey-Snook changed political landscape in Pinellas Park