As the First Lady of the State, I had the wonderful opportunity to serve, to make
things happen, to give leadership to those projects I was passionate about, and
which I felt would improve the quality of life for all of the citizens of the State
of Washington. As wife of John Spellman, Governor of the State of Washington from
1981 to 1985, I became the First Lady and the official hostess of the mansion.
I wanted to make each visitor feel welcome. Of course, I might be guilty of forgetting
a name now and then but I always remembered their face. The art of making space
for another. I enjoy people. I always am learning. I want to be open to them, and
for us, the Spellman family, the memories are all happy ones. I am thankful for
the opportunity to reside in the mansion for those four wonderful years. And to
Nancy Evans, I am appreciative of her leadership in establishing the rules of the
mansion and creating such a beautiful residence, so appropriate for the style of
the architecture.
When we moved in, we had three of our six children with us. Katherine, the youngest,
was in the sixth grade, I believe. And Teresa was a junior in high school. Jeff
wasn’t with us immediately, but he joined us later because he was transferring from
W.S.U. [Washington State University] to be in the motion picture and entertainment
department at Evergreen State College. Our challenge was to maintain the style of
family life we had always practiced. John and I felt that our family was the most
important part of our life, and we didn't want the children to think that living
in the mansion would be such a special thing or that there was going to be live-in
help. In fact, everyone had resigned before we entered the mansion. I guess that
was the current practice. So it was rather easy to achieve what I wanted to do.
But believe me, there was no way I could cook for all the receptions and dinners
and all. I did the family cooking. The children were in charge of making their beds,
picking up their gear, all of that. We weren’t changing any of our family rules.
I believe that there was one person who was on the janitorial staff of the State
that was the greeter at the mansion door. And that was all he did. To me, that was
not using the State money very well. I found out that we had a budget for the mansion,
and it was approved yearly. And within that budget, I wanted to be able to have
a full time chef for all the public events, not for family cooking, and also to
have two assistant to do the cleaning and polishing and service and taking care
of the official rooms of the mansion.
It was important that these employees be considered State employees and have all
the rights, health-care insurance, and retirement funds. My major in college was
labor relations and business administration. I really felt that I couldn’t tolerate
having people work under me who were not treated fairly. So I lobbied John. I got
all my facts together. Believe me, he really is hard on me when I’m trying to accomplish
something he has to participate in. But anyway, he was convinced. We discussed it,
and he got the authority ( it would have to be approved through the legislature)
to put them on the public payroll.
Three months after we arrived, I received a call saying that I should come to the
Governor's Office. There, I was told that the Mansion Foundation had filed a formal
complaint against us, because I was introducing Northwest art into the mansion.
John’s legal counsel, Marilyn Showalter, and Keith Angier, Director of the Department
of General Administration, met with me. They examined the agreement the Mansion
Foundation had, and it was determined that I could hang Northwest art in the galleries
and in the family rooms. So, we went ahead and had Northwest art and artists come
in. Grand receptions would be held for them. We had the first artist who contributed
to the display and Tom Wellesley, Kenneth Callahan, and Fay Jones and, let me say,
Jacob Lawrence, the outstanding black painter. They all came to the mansion for
a reception. It was wonderful meeting such talented and marvelous people.
My husband certainly loves music and we had those grand pianos in the mansion. We
had met a young man, Patrick McDonald, when my husband was campaigning for the governorship
in his hometown in Southwestern Washington, who played piano very well and when
he came to Olympia, I asked to speak with him. He worked somewhere in the web of
the Governor's Office and came to the mansion where I asked him if he would play
background music for us, and he agreed. I loved music when we having our luncheons
or formal dinners.
We had the opera down. And they would sing a few arias. John loved having jazz players.
Among the guests that he invited, was legislator Barney McClure who would come over.
It was so much fun. It was just so much fun. And then John contacted Count Basie,
because he was one of his favorites. And Count Basie promised to come to the mansion.
And just before the date, Basie passed away.
John and I were in Seoul, Korea, where my husband was addressing the International
Association of Travel Agents. He was there promoting trade and tourism at the time.
I believe the acronym was ASTRA. John was in the holding pen, waiting to get on,
to make his address. I was left out in the lobby and there was this nice gentleman
I struck up a conversation with. My husband always tells me I could talk to a stump.
But this was no stump. This was Clifton Daniels. And he said, “Wait a minute, I
want you to meet my wife, Margaret Truman.” And she came, and it was just wonderful,
because I had voted for her daddy. John was on the other side. We’ve had an interesting
political life.
Margaret Truman Daniels told me she remembered visiting the mansion with her father
when Mon Wallgren was Governor and he played the piano there. And I thanked her
for sharing that. It was wonderful. We just chatted like we were old friends. My
parents were born on the east coast, the east coast of Canada, New Brunswick. I
used to spend my summers either in Boston or New York. So I was a sort of a semi
east coast girl. We really had a delightful, charming conversation.
John mentioned, not too long ago, that he met a man whose father worked for Governor
Hartley. The fellow remembers running around the office, and they even had Boy Scout
meetings in the Governor's office. Isn't that delightful!
One thing you really should know is how marvelous it was to have the children with
us in the mansion. Our youngest, Katherine, and her friends would come and go through
the back fence and I never knew how they did it. They would just pop up when they
would need some fruit juice, cookies or cookie jar things.
Kat was having a birthday party, and we always were very creative. Now I know these
days children go to Chuckie Cheese’s or someplace. I thought we should have a party
for ET. ET was very popular then. So Kat and I created an ET. We had a basketball
and made a paper mache head. Then I called Keith Angier in the Governor’s Office
to ask permission for a group of children to visit the dome. At that time, the dome
was open to visitors.
We got over there and they gave us permission, and we hung ET from the top of the
dome with nylon fishing nylon, from John’s fishing equipment or something. We had
a clue party going all the way from the mansion over to the dome. We had clues for
all the kids. It was so much fun to see these children excited and having such a
good time.
If one of the children was having a party, we always insisted on having everyone
in the class invited. If they were a little girl, they only had to invite all the
girls. Or boys, they could have the boys. If they didn’t want to do that, no birthday
party. I think even today the children are hurt if they're not invited to a party.
That’s sadness in a child!
At Christmas time, we sang Christmas carols. With permission from the Foundation,
we had a wonderful, wonderful Christmas tree erected in the mansion ballroom. I
invited children from all over the State to send in handmade ornaments and we decorated
the tree with them. It was sort of competitive for our children. They would look
at all those ornaments, and they were so wonderful. In fact, I snuck a couple of
them, and I still put them up on the tree here.
As a family, we would sing Christmas carols. And John would lead us in them. We
would have the mansion open for people to come in for a couple of hours, visit,
and sing carols. I still have the pamphlet, stapled together, of Christmas carols.
I had a young man who was volunteering to help me and he got to choose all the carols
that were in that songbook. I thought it was so precious. And it was wonderful trying
to get more people involved in everything we did and sharing so many happy memories.
I also remember going out and purchasing – on my own dime – kazoos. In fact, I went
all over Olympia looking for kazoos, because I wanted them to be able to have a
kazoo band. So that was one of the fun things we did in the mansion ballroom. We
were a happy group and had a lot of fun there. That’s why I say the Spellman family
really enjoyed their days.
We had a little bit of a challenge when it came to mansion security, because I was
so independent. I didn’t like to have somebody with me all the time. In fact, I
did our own grocery shopping on our own dime. That was our family budget from John’s
salary. The cadets were like my children. They were so young. And they had the best
looking shoes. I would look at them and I would think, John, you’ve got to polish
your shoes! The cadets look better than you do. I could hear them at night, clicking
through the hallways and the grandfather clock sounding the chimes. I knew all was
well when those cadets went through the mansion halls. We have a grandfather's clock
in our house now, and I listen to it when I’m awake at night.
I recall John and I attended a Chinese New Year’s banquet one time and they gave
us a live chicken which we had to take home. Well, thank God the State Patrol was
driving. This chicken was in a cage. They told us it was for our dinner, our Happy
New Year dinner. Katherine would never tolerate that. She begged for a formal pardon
on behalf of the chicken from her father. The cadets were chasing this rooster around
in front of the mansion. Somebody from the Governor’s office whose father had a
farm asked if they could take the chicken to its proper habitat. The chicken received
its pardon.
Governor Rosellini and John ran against each other for County Executive in Seattle.
And fortunately, or unfortunately, John won. But we were friends. We were all friends.
The Rosellini’s lived in our Seattle neighborhood. So, Al mentioned that he had
a garden on the mansion grounds. Well, John, Mr. Green Thumb, not really, (but he
always thinks he is) decided he was going to plant a garden. This was right to the
rear of the formal dining room. John was delighted when foreign visitors would come
to town. He would immediately take them out to the garden to show them the corn.
The corn was taller than the fence! The growing season in Olympia is much longer
than in Seattle. We’re lucky if we get a few tomatoes that are raised in a pot.
That was so much fun. It was wonderful.
Our wonderful chef, Kyle, had an herb garden, and she used the fresh herbs. Oh,
Kyle! I can’t say enough. We had a committee and I had some of my gourmet friends
on this committee to select a chef. I believe we had three trial chefs before we
finally hired Kyle. And she was a joy to work with. Just a wonderful young woman.
I also interviewed and hired Hai and Michi, who I understand are still there. Hai
used to share Vietnamese recipes with us and she and Michi would try to show us
how to do things. Oh, dear! You know, I’m sure that in Vietnam Hai was an opera
star. She has a beautiful, beautiful operatic voice. And I would listen to her singing
when I was working and it just brought joy to my heart. She had probably as many
children as I had, and was trying to balance that.
There was a woman named Martha that we had hired. And actually, she had worked there
previously. She was wonderful, and she knew so much about the mansion. And about
three or four months after we got all the new hires on the state payroll, with the
rights and health care insurance, she was permanently disabled in a motorcycle accident.
And I read about her. I’m a mother to almost everyone, even my girlfriends, I think.
Martha's husband used to pick her up after work, on this motorcycle. And I would
look out there and I would think oh my gosh, Martha! Do you know what you’re doing?
Well Martha, poor thing, never walked again. But they did bring her by in her wheelchair
to say hello one day. I feel health-care insurance is so important. I cannot tell
you.
We had several distinguished visitors at the mansion and the first one arrived in
January. It was the premiere of British Columbia, William Richards Bennett. He had
met with my husband prior to John's being sworn in as Washington's governor. When
they met in Victoria, he told John that he would love to come down to Olympia and
become our first visitor when John became governor. And he and his wife visited
us. It was so delightful. I was fortunate as a child; my parents lived about four
blocks from Lord Beaverbrook. So I was always very aware of the importance of these
lords and prime ministers.
The French ambassador visited us because he had heard of our Washington State wines.
At that time our wines came, primarily, from the Yakima area. Now, of course, the
Walla Walla region has become very important, as well.
We held an open house at the mansion, and we invited members of the legislature
and winery owners that we had met from all through the State of Washington. The
wineries were asked to share their wines with the members of the legislatures. I
would say the greatest percentage had never had a glass of Washington wine before.
For John and me, it was just wonderful. It was the explosion, the baptism of the
wineries in the State of Washington. We also started to invite the consuls who were
based in the State and in Seattle to the mansion for an open house.
And may I say, as a woman, I never really wanted to be an astronaut, but I know
some of our daughters did. We had Bonnie Dunbar in, who was the first woman astronaut.
We had her parents in, and I believe they were from the Yakima area. I saw Bonnie's
picture in the paper recently; she’s director of the flight museum here in Seattle,
and still contributing so much.
Well of course I should remark that we had some important sports figures visit us.
For instance, since John was a graduate of Georgetown as was our son David, the
final four champions from Georgetown University came to the mansion.
Jim Zorn called me and asked if he could bring his little daughter to the mansion
to see the stairs. And she made her first climb up the stairs of the mansion.
While we were in the mansion, we invited blind children from the area to visit the
mansion for an Easter egg hunt. Through the Telephone Pioneers, what a wonderful
group they were, we were able to get eggs with beepers placed inside so the children
could locate them.
We were organizing a statewide volunteer recognition and also getting volunteers
to help with the food banks. I was reminiscing, not too long ago, about the people
that came to the food bank when I said there’s such a shortage of food in the state
because of the dire economic times. John was governor through the worst economic
depression since the 1930s. There were people hurting all over. And we had people
in from the Restaurant Association, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Safeway. I was like
Mrs. Goose. We had about seventy or eighty people there who wanted to work on this.
I think getting to come to the mansion had a lot to do with it.
I was involved with volunteer groups. I want to thank all the volunteers who continue
the docent work at the mansion and take care of that beautiful place in so many
ways. Because without volunteers, where would we be? And I think it’s one of the
most important things we can do as individuals, sharing our skills and our talents,
and most especially our time with others.