Virginia Bass Wetherell

Virginia Bass "Ginger" Wetherell (born May 15, 1947) is an American businesswoman and politician. She was a member of the Florida House of Representatives for the 2nd district between 1982 and 1988, then the first Secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection from 1991-1998.

Wetherell was born in Anniston, Alabama and graduated from Anniston High School in 1965. She received her bachelor's degree in biological science and psychology from Auburn University in August 1968 and taught at Anniston High School prior to a brief unsuccessful marriage. She went back to school and earned a master's degree in counseling from Jacksonville State University in 1972.

Wetherell married again in 1973 and two girls were born to the couple. She worked with the Bass family businesses in Pensacola throughout the 1970s which included a Pepsi bottling company, a truck freight company, a mortgage investment company and a food & beverage vending company, which she started. All the businesses were put up for sale by her husband in 1981 and she decided to enter politics before they sold in 1984.

She campaigned for the Florida House in 1982 as a Democrat and was the first woman elected from northwest Florida. She was reelected twice, serving from November 2, 1982, to November 8, 1988. She divorced Bass during her third term in office and married T. K. Wetherell in 1988. After leaving the Florida House, she was hired as Deputy Director of the Florida Department of Natural Resources, a position she held until 1991 when she was appointed by Governor Lawton Chiles as Secretary of the new Florida Department of Environmental Protection. FDEP was created by the merger of the Florida Department of Natural Resources and the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation. The FDEP employs over 3,000 professionals and has a budget exceeding $1 billion. For professional development, Wetherell attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1997. She left the FDEP in 1998.

While serving in the Florida House, T. K. Wetherell began purchasing parcels of land in the Red Hills Region of Jefferson County, Florida that would become the 983-acre Oak Hill Plantation. The property is near Lamont, an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) 30 miles east of Tallahassee. Following her wedding to TK in 1988, they began planning to build a home on the property.

Design inspiration for the home came from the historic Asa May house in nearby Capps, Florida. Architectural elements from historic buildings being demolished, or purchased at auctions were incorporated into the plans. Tallahassee's Old Floridan Hotel was the source of four huge 19th-century windows that were placed at the ends of the main hallways on each side of the first floor. The ceilings are thirteen-feet tall to frame the jumbo windows. The staircase off the grand foyer used pine from the Old Ormond Hotel which opened in 1888 and was built by Henry Flagler. Other historic elements from the Ormond Hotel include fireplace mantels, doorknobs, and other hardware. Flooring throughout the house is heart-of-pine. Construction on a two-story Plantation house was begun in 1990 and completed the following year.

There are formal living and dining rooms, a library with a comfortable reading area, a parlor with a wet bar, a chef's kitchen outfitted with high-end appliances and an informal dining area; a separate caterer’s kitchen; a butler’s pantry, an office, a Home cinema featuring pediments and light fixtures once in the old Florida Capital building, and a screened porch overlooking the landscaped backyard. The second-floor porch has a view of the lake.

A Conservation easement was established in 2012 with Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy to drastically lower the yearly property tax bill. The easement prohibits subdivision and development but allows changes for recreational use.