As I recall, I became interested in the Mansion after a group of us volunteered
to address the Christmas cards for the Evans. That’s when I first met Nancy Evans.
We sat in a room on the lower level of the Mansion with a pot of coffee and addressed
envelopes. Nancy couldn’t always be there, but we worked diligently and she helped
when her schedule allowed. I would imagine Dorothy Donworth, Virginia Talcott and
Miggs Gaudette were those who encouraged me to help with that project.
I think Eva Goldberg was the backbone of everything. It was probably Eva and Dorothy,
being the fantastic hostesses that they were, who were initially introduced to the
new First Ladies of our State. And so I think those women were, in a way, the teachers
of the incoming spouses. The families would move down to Olympia and be put into
a situation they had never been in before and these volunteers knew what would,
socially, be expected of them.
It was kind of fun. Fun times. You know, the interesting thing about it was that
at that time, there wasn’t the security that’s necessary today. The three Evans
boys and Peggy their dog, who was a huge Irish wolfhound, were the only alarm system
they had. Our children played with the Evans children. The kids eventually had a
tree fort out in back. They would slide up and down the Mansion stairs. Nancy Evans
would shop at Safeway and you might run into her wearing her ski jacket. I don’t
think a lot of people recognized her though. It was just a whole different era.
I really don’t know how it came about, but you know, the Governor’s Mansion was
in such a state that some of the legislators thought it should be torn down. During
that time Mrs. Evans, when asked, thought the house was worth keeping. She said
“definitely we should keep this house” and we should renovate it. And then she got
to thinking about the fact that they should put nice furniture in it. So that’s
when she started getting the idea of forming a foundation.
It was such a beautiful building, but it was built as a temporary structure and
it was not built very well. The State never did take care of it, and I know people
have heard the stories about how very cold it was and the electricity was bad; that
the thermostat for the third floor was on the first floor and for the second floor
in the basement. When they had to move out of the Mansion, they moved into the Ingham
House that was on campus then. The Evans moved into it while the renovation was
going on which took about two years.
During that time, Mrs. Evans asked Lorraine Gandy to be chairman of the Preservation
of the Governor’s Mansion. She was a lovely, lovely person from Seattle. Then they
asked people throughout the State to be on the Board of Trustees. I think the reason
so many of us got involved from this area is that most of the volunteer work that
happens at the capital is done by people from Olympia and the surrounds.
In 1975, when they opened the Mansion for the first time for the people to see after
the renovation, I was fortunate enough to be asked to be a docent. We dressed in
period costumes and the first people welcomed into the house were those who were
donors. I’ve been involved a long time, and it’s been delightful. I’ve met some
of the nicest people in the State through this organization.
After the people who made donations of furniture, money or accessory items had been
through, the public tours began. If I can remember this story correctly, people
would come on specified days. Occasionally people would wander all over. All of
a sudden you might find somebody wandering up to the private quarters. That’s the
way it happened at the beginning. Things weren’t quite as organized as they are
now. Eventually, the Furniture Preservation group became the Governor’s Mansion
Foundation. The Evans family was here for twelve years and Nancy Evans was the one
who started The Governor’s Mansion Foundation [GMF]. Because of her, we have the
Mansion now.
Next, we had Dixy Lee Ray as Governor. She was a very, very bright woman. Since
she was not married, her sister Marion Reid acted as the First Lady. Dixy Lee was
not visible, hardly at all, but her sister was a lovely hostess. You know, the Governor
didn’t do that kind of thing and that’s the way that worked.
Volunteers would come into the Mansion and decorate it for Christmas. The Foundation
members did volunteer work of all sorts there. I was still just a docent and was
not aware of many of the goings on there. Nancy Evans and I became good friends,
so I am able to speak knowledgeably about that time.
I wasn’t close with the Spellman’s either. Mrs. Spellman was not too visible, and
I didn’t get to know her well. She was a very, very nice person, though.
I knew both the Gardners in college. So it was really fun to have them there. During
their last year I became President of the GMF and knew a little bit more about life
in the Mansion.
I wish that I would have been President longer. I was a transition President [1992-94].
The Gardners were leaving and the Lowrys were coming in. The last six months when
a governor’s wife is trying to get ready to go, are hectic. But the Gardners attended
everything. They would sit in the front row at the concerts. They really got into
it. They also had two wedding receptions in the Mansion. Booth Gardner adored being
Governor. It was great!
During the Lowry administration, I was in the Mansion as GMF President for an entire
year, probably about a year and three months with Mary Lowry. The interesting thing
is that when Booth and Jeanie had been there for eight years, and one of the things
that happens when a governor moves out and a new one moves in – I don’t know if
you know this or not – but they take inventory. The State takes inventory of everything
that’s the State’s, and the Governor’s Mansion takes inventory of everything that
is theirs. It’s a very easy thing to do, but it’s very time consuming. The thing
is, when you’ve lived in a house for eight years, do you really remember what’s
all yours? It’s a funny situation. When a new Governor moves in, then it’s up to
the Foundation President to get the State and the Governor together and have a meeting
with them. They sign agreements so everybody knows who does what.
The other thing that’s so interesting is that the State owns the house. When I first
became President, one of the things that we discovered was that the electricity
had to be completely, not rewired, just checked out. The State owned the walls,
you see, but we owned the things on the walls. The State’s Mansion had been earthquake-proofed.
We had not earthquake-proofed our art. We had to have that done. It was necessary
to have somebody from the State there to attach the hutches and the art to the walls.
We couldn’t do it because the walls were theirs and they couldn’t do it because
the hutch and art were ours. We had to do that together. The GMF volunteers put
artist’s wax on the bottom of all the things that could be shaken off by an earthquake.
It was really quite an interesting process. We also had to check the furnishings
for scratches and gouges and make sure things got repaired. People live there and
things happen.
That was my first and, probably, biggest part of my first year. That’s what’s so
great about our organization. Everybody does their thing and it continues on.
I really worked hard on getting people from Eastern Washington involved in things.
It’s very hard to be active in something that’s so far away. I remember a trustee,
named Billie Hyland, who had a collection of hats that some of the past First Ladies
had donated to us. She also had other hats from the different eras in the Governor’s
Mansion. Some of the ladies modeled the hats at the Sunset Club in Seattle. It was
called the History of Hats and it was great. People seemed to love that sort of
thing. During my time, we took the show to Eastern Washington. I wanted to visit
each area and be sure we had something of interest going on for them. We wanted
them to know we appreciated their work, and we hoped to interest others.
Somehow Sunset Magazine heard about our hats and came to Olympia to take photos
when we used them on a Christmas tree in the Mansion. We used hats and old toys.
It was really clever and the magazine used the photo in one of their November issues.
I think it was in 1993. Our membership increased by about two hundred new members.
I think people get awfully busy now. I don’t think that they join organizations
as much. I think it’s harder to maintain a membership. It gets very difficult.
Acquisitions-wise, we didn’t get too much, since we were doing so much of the fix
up, clean up, paint up. We got the candlestick table and the candlestick in the
drawing room. That actually was donated through money that was collected in memory
of Miggs Gaudette who was a curator there for years and years and years. We had
a silver mercury bowl given to us, and we purchased the new dining room rug. We
also started the decorating of the Hay bedroom.
Lots of happy times, but sad ones, too. It was very sad because not only Miggs passed
away, but also Lorraine Gandy. And Lorraine was the backbone of the Foundation as
far as getting it started, and she continued to be active up until the very last.
She was a wonderful person. I really feel as though she is the one who started us
on the path of getting the right furniture that made the Mansion such a beautiful,
beautiful home.
By the time the Lowrys moved in, we had enough furniture for Mrs. Lowry’s father,
who moved in with them. There was enough for a nice little apartment sitting room,
bedroom, etcetera, for him on the third floor. I just loved him. He was a dear man.
He was always sitting in the family kitchen, reading the paper and then he’d go
out to the sun porch and take the dog out there. I remember that.
The endowment started in 1989 as a gift to the State of Washington on its one hundredth
birthday. We decided that’s what we would do for them and the preservation of the
furnishings would be taken care of. And it was interesting, because we were going
to have a real hard sell. We wanted to get three hundred thousand dollars immediately,
knowing that we can’t, through an organization like that, raise a lot of money.
Then we had a slowing of the economy and we had the Gulf War. So the endowment changed
into this kind of soft and fuzzy, if you want to give some money, ten dollars is
fine. Well, people were so generous; we could not believe it. By 1992, when I went
into office, we had over three hundred thousand dollars. And when I left in ’94,
we had over four hundred thousand dollars. It was one of those things that people
really wanted to give to.
We prepared all the materials to explain what was going on. One of the things we
found out was about 17,404 people would go through the door every year to tour the
Mansion. That meant 34,808 pairs of loafers or high heels and half the time it rained.
That’s 17,404 wet feet and about 7,800 soggy raincoats and about five thousand dripping
wet umbrellas. All that helped us with our list of what we needed, such as new carpets
in the entryway. When I went out to ask for money, I was armed with all this information.
It allowed some people, who might never see Mansion, to feel a part of it.