[3] In the first year following Lawton Chiles' election to the United States Senate in 1970, Rhea was walking by 200 East Capitol Street.

[6] Unique among the properties of the 50 states, Florida House serves as a "goodwill embassy" for Floridians in Washington, D.C. Florida House sits atop Capitol Hill, and is located nearby the United States Supreme Court, the Library of Congress and the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Serving as home base for tourists as well as the business community, Florida House hosts approximately 10,000 visitors a year.

It is filled with art and period antiques donated by people from all over Florida, and provides hospitality to all Floridians who visit.

The facility also offers cultural and educational opportunities that enable Florida citizens to enrich their appreciation, knowledge and involvement in our federal government.

The work of the Governor and Mrs. Chiles on behalf of children led to the creation of The Lawton and Rhea Chiles Center for Healthy Mothers and Babies at the University of South Florida College of Public Health, a maternal and child health research and policy institute established by the Florida Legislature in 1996.

The Truth campaign resulted in a dramatic cessation of tobacco use among middle and high school students, and became a national model.

[9][10] Over the next decade, Chiles developed and managed The Studio at Gulf and Pine, a community cultural center in Anna Maria, Florida.

[11] Chiles died from a lengthy illness at her home in Anna Maria Island, Florida, at the age of 84.