A Moment of Silence • Flake bowed his head for the opening prayer to start the 2007 session of the Legislature.

Early last year, Sen. Jake Flake was all fired up after a newspaper said the era of the cowboy-legislator might be coming to an end.
Later in a committee hearing, Flake reminded everyone that he was “not riding into the sunset.”
On June 8, Flake, a cowboy and a legislator, did. He died after collapsing at his home in Snowflake, the town his great-grandfather founded. He was 72.
His death might have indeed signaled the end of an era — that of men and women who came to the Capitol straight from the farm and brought a distinctively rural perspective to lawmaking.
Flake was among the last of a breed of legislators who, in the words of one colleague, were “wedded to the earth” and who embodied the ideal of a citizen-legislator.
Around the Capitol, Flake spoke with a deep, mellow voice and with a country drawl, and wore a huge folksy smile. Always cordial, he never raised his voice on the floor. At times, he found himself explaining, for the benefit of his urban colleagues, farm life and the related equipment.
It was in the area of agriculture, water and rural issues where he left his deepest footprint on the state. He was, in ways more than one, a natural fit to head the Senate Natural Resources and Rural Affairs Committee.
In the past few years, Flake dealt with some of the most important measures affecting rural Arizona. Last year, Flake worked with Senate Minority Leader Marsha Arzberger on landmark legislation to require 100 years of water adequacy to build a subdivision outside of Active Management Areas.
He had a keen sense of timing, perhaps because he grew up on a ranch. He instinctively knew that while some problems need immediate solutions, others, especially the more serious ones, need more time. That might help explain his decision to amend a bill aimed at curbing air pollution in the Valley when the measure was heard in his committee last year.
His amendment, according to the bill’s proponents, effectively gutted it. Flake said it was “premature to put that heavy of a bill through.” He said his amendment was an effort to “tone that down a bit.”
Flake eventually voted for the measure on the floor, after substantial amendments were made in negotiation with stakeholders.
This year, his committee tackled a life-and-death issue — the danger of open mine shafts in Arizona, which have claimed the lives of two children this year after they fell into them.
Flake’s committee passed a bill that eventually was signed by the governor to allow the State Mine Inspector to accept in-kind donations of material, equipment and services to eliminate the public safety hazard of abandoned mines, to fill abandoned mines with inert materials, and repeals the Inspector’s authority to donate surplus mining rescue equipment.
Colleagues mourned Flake’s passing and remembered him as a common-sense lawmaker.
“He is one of the old-time cowboys,” said Sen. Robert Blendu, who served with Flake in both the Senate and the House. “It is probably very fitting that he ended his life getting bucked off a horse. He probably wouldn’t have had it any other way.”
Flake broke eight ribs after he fell from a horse he was riding on his farm in Snowflake on May 24. On June 8, a second fall, this time in his home, claimed his life.
That his colleagues had great respect for the former House speaker was evident in the fact that the Legislature arranged a floor schedule during the second week of June that did not conflict with Flake’s memorial service.
On June 11, colleagues and friends paid their respects to Flake in a memorial service at a Mormon church in Phoenix.
Hundreds of people, including state officials and legislative staff, showed up for the service in Phoenix, which was punctuated by remarks and tales of remembrances from close friend and lobbyist Bas Aja, former Senate President Ken Bennett, and nephew Congressman Jeff Flake. It was a snapshot about the life of the rancher-turned-legislator who descended from a pioneer family.
Each had many stories to tell, but they all painted the picture of a man who dearly loved the farm, who was deeply devoted to his family and church, and who worked hard to improve the state.
Rancher
Born to Virgil and Gerda Flake on Aug. 4, 1935, Franklin Lars Flake was a rancher his entire life. His father nicknamed him “Jake” when he was a baby, and the name stuck.
Flake was a member of Arizona State University’s graduating class in 1960. Between 1955 and 1957, he served as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Southwest Indian Mission. In 1959, he married Mary Louise and started what would become a large family — 13 children, 55 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.
Flake worked on his father’s ranch after graduation and later purchased it with his three brothers. Together, they expanded the company, F-Bar Cattle Company, into one of the most successful cattle operations in the Southwest — owning or leasing ranches and marketing bulls and heifers throughout the Southwest and Mexico.
“There is nothing I would rather do than saddle horses and go ride among our cattle with some of my kids and grandkids,” Flake once said.
Indeed, Flake’s experience on the farm was often reflected in his work in and out of the Legislature. Asked how he was, he would say, “Right as rain.”
Just a few weeks ago, he and another lawmaker found themselves describing a “hay squeeze” machine to their city-slicker colleagues. His caucus was discussing a bill that would exempt hay squeezes from registration requirements.
Flake’s nephew, U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake, said he doesn’t think he could ever get away with saying, as his uncle often did after wrapping up negotiations on a piece of legislation, “Well, it’s time to put the bulls on the cows and finish this thing.”
A colleague in the audience said the late senator made “all kinds” of ranch-related remarks and then fondly added that only Jake Flake could get away with it.
During the memorial service, Jeff Flake described what life was like growing up on the ranch. It was a place where it was tough to complain about hard work — because the fathers were toiling right beside their children. It was also a place where kids were taught to admire and respect their elders.
Jeff Flake said his uncle loved to sing when driving. But he and the other boys didn’t think much of his singing, he said with a chuckle. So his uncle would tickle their knee until they were forced to take their hands off their ears — and thereby listen to his singing.
Another ritual was to bring prospective spouses to the farm to meet the “Four Fathers”— Uncle Jake Flake and his three siblings — to be “tested” of their knowledge about all things rural. Congressman Jeff Flake said when it was his turn to bring his then-fiancée Cheryl to the ranch, she watched cows being given pregnancy tests. Another tale: the congressman said his dad and uncles wouldn’t refer to Cheryl as being pregnant, but “in production.”
Politics in family
Politics runs in the Flake clan, and Jeff Flake said he has been elected and re-elected to his post largely because of the good name established by other Flakes before him.
The congressman said with hi
s and Sen. Flake’s names — Jeff and Jake — so close, there was bound to be confusion, and newspapers often interchanged them. He said, with a wide grin, he benefited from it.
“When campaign checks for Uncle Jake came to my office, I was sorely tempted. How hard would it be to change ‘ake to ‘eff’≠ In case the FEC is listening, I never knowingly did that,” he said, drawing a healthy laugh from the crowd.
Aja recalled when he and Sen. Flake went to get a picture with President Bush in 2003. Upon entering the room, Flake said, “Mr. President, the cowboys are here to see you.”
In an earlier interview, Aja recalled the same story, and he said the president’s reaction was “I like the cowboys.”
During the memorial, Aja said the president also said, “Mr. Speaker, I need you to help me with your nephew — he is giving me some trouble with Cuba.”
Later, Congressman Flake said Bush told him he had just met his uncle and that he was “quite a character.”
Former Senate President Ken Bennett said the best way to describe Flake’s leadership is that he “knew people by name,” and he treated the cleaning staff no differently than he did colleagues. It took him quite some time to reach his legislative office from the lobby because he greeted everyone, he said.
Flake had considered running for the U.S. House seat that will be vacated by Republican Congressman Rick Renzi. But in the end, he decided against it.
“I’ve decided that I want to stay here in the Senate,” Flake said Feb. 12. “I just studied it and felt like I could do more good right here in the Senate.”
Devoted to his faith
Besides serving as a Mormon missionary for two years, Flake was active in the local church.
He was a counselor to a stake president, a mission president, a member of the High Council, a stake president, and a nursery leader.
“If you ever wondered why Jake Flake was such a happy man, if you ever wondered why after talking to Jake no problem was too big, no obstacle insurmountable, it is because he knew and he lived all these things in his heart,” Jeff Flake said after reciting the tenets of the Mormon faith, in which he said his uncle had a deep and abiding faith.
Defender of local government
Both the Arizona Association of Counties and the League of Arizona Cities and Towns said Flake was one of the strongest defenders of local control in the Capitol.
“Jake was especially committed to protecting the resources of county government and was a fearless advocate for local control of budgets and a defender of state formulas that impacted county operations,” said Nicole Stickler of the county association.
Stickler said he was a staunch supporter of the Highway User Revenue Fund and the portion that finds its way to county road departments across the state.
In a 2007 bulletin of the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, Flake explained his philosophy of government this way:
“The least amount of government you can get by with is the best, and what government you do have should be as close to the people as possible. Town and city government should impact its citizens’ lives more than any other government, but they should always impact their lives for the good.”
Flake’s district includes 18 cities and towns — the largest number of any district in the state.
Sandy Bahr of the Sierra Club said she and Flake disagreed on a number of issues.
But he was fair, she said. And unlike a lot of committee chairs, he generally allowed her to speak to his committee.
One of the last times Bahr testified to the Natural Resources and Affairs Committee, she and Flake were in agreement on the first three bills heard. But she said they disagreed on the fourth.
“He commented that he was beginning to think we were on a roll,” she said.
“Obviously, he cared a lot about Arizona. We just had different views on what’s needed to protect the state’s resources,” she said.
Flake’s passing left a hole particularly regarding legislation he had supported this year. Among them is the creation of an Arizona-only guest worker program sponsored by Sen. Arzberger, Democrat who often teamed up with the late senator on measures affecting rural Arizona.
“I lost a buddy. I deeply regret that. We were there for each other, and now I don’t have him anymore,” Arzberger said.
Reporters Christian Palmer and Bill Coates contributed to this article.