Woman battles trailer park over Virgin Mary painting

A legal battle is brewing over a portrait of the Virgin Mary an 85-year-old devout Catholic woman had commissioned to replace a window on her mobile home.

Attorneys representing Bradenton Tropical Palms’ board of directors have filed paperwork announcing that Millie Francis “has been sued in this proceeding,” with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares and Mobile Homes.

The suit included a demand for arbitration, a process where an arbitrator’s ruling would be legally binding in order to keep it out of an actual courtroom.

The issue with Francis went public in early November when property management demanded she remove the painting, which depicts Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe, and Francis declaring, “They’ll have to kill me first.”

One week later, attorneys representing the mobile home park threatened a lawsuit if she didn’t take the painting down within 30 days. Francis did not and now lawyers are attempting to force the painting’s removal.

In the filed documents, park management states Francis going to the media is a, “ploy to garner media coverage and religious groups in an effort to avoid compliance.”

At the heart of the issue is whether the management of Tropical Palms is singling out Francis specifically for the subject matter of the painting. Management insists that the demand to remove the painting have nothing to do with religion and that Francis simply didn’t follow through on park rules pertaining to the replacement of her front window.

However, attorneys acknowledge in the documents that Francis submitted the forms, “but with no request for an overall change in appearance or design.”

Management insists Francis was required to submit additional requests to do the painting itself. Francis is not targeted because of her beliefs, lawyers say.

“This is pointed out solely to rebut the fact that [Francis] has attempted to turn the enforcement matter into an alleged discriminatory action by the board, when in fact, that allegation could not be further from the truth,” the documents state.

Francis isn’t buying that argument, noting that if the painting was of flowers she doubts this would have become an issue at all: “It’s anti-Catholic and I don’t care what anybody says... I’m sorry, but that’s what it is. I wasn’t late putting it up. That’s not the issue. It’s me and the painting.”

Francis said the issue has caused a divide in the Tropical Palms community and after living there for 15 years, neighbors have stopped talking to her while others have expressed support.