It’s all in the details. As a Florida legislator, and later a Congressman, Darren Soto made the acquaintance of Adelene Bay, known around her Indian Wells neighborhood, and in Osceola County, as “Ady”.
She was a presence — and made her presence felt — as “Ambassadors to the County Commission”. Her husband Karl was a volunteer photographer at Commission meetings until not long before his passing in 2010, and Ady assisted staff and the public attending meetings, until she stepped down from that duty in 2012. The county has not had such an ambassador since then.
Ady passed away in August at the age of 93, but to make sure her presence remains, Soto was able to commission a U.S. flag to be flown in her honor over the U.S. Capitol Building on May 1.
Last week, now-U.S. Rep. Darren Soto (D-Kissimmee), presented that flag to Bay’s daughter, Judy, and former neighbors at his Kissimmee legislative field office.
Osceola County Chief of Staff Beth Knight, among others who knew Ady well, attended the ceremony, and said the flag will be displayed, as a touching detail, in the County Commission’s chambers on the fourth floor of the county administration building.
“I wanted to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for honoring my mom and dad,” Judy Bay said. “That flag means so much to me and will help as I start to grieve and heal."
Ady and Karl were the last in the “Ambassadors to the County Commission” program. The two were vocal residents in Indian Wells, a community west of the city of Kissimmee nestled just outside he West U.S. Highway 192 corridor, and they were always advocating for that community, making sure their neighbors were getting the best bang for their taxpaying buck.
“We recognized her contributions to the community, one of the main reasons we flew that flag over the Capitol,” Soto said. “I always appreciated her advice. She was sharp as a tack until the end, and I appreciated being able to talk to her about some of the things she worked on. We wanted to honor her.”
Former County Commissioner Mike Harford served district 1, which includes Indian Wells from 2008-16, and said getting to know Ady, Karl and Judy was “a real privilege.”
“We look at how the world is today and we see the civic mindedness of those who came before us,” Harford said. “To grow a community you have to be in a community. They took pride in Indian Wells and its standing in the community, and kept me sharp on it.
“We honor our past by taking the best of those people with us.”
Knight said you could count on seeing Ady and Karl at every meeting, in their green ambassador jackets, handing out agendas. And, not a meeting went by without Ady sharing something of her firm beliefs.
“But it didn’t come from a mean spot. I never came across two more community-minded people,” Knight said. “We visited her right before she passed and she was still letting us know what things needed to be addressed.”
