My number one training for working in The Mansion was my close personal friendship
with Governor Locke -- long before he was elected. Professionally, I worked for
Mayor Charles Royer as his executive assistant his last term in office. I also worked
for my state representative and state senator as a session employee many years ago.
So I was familiar with what happened in Olympia. Before I went to Olympia I worked
for a research scientist. We set up biotech companies and worked to get them on
their feet and established, then moved on to set up other companies. So I had a
lot of experience working as an executive assistant.
When Gary was elected governor, it was very important for him to have people in
Olympia he knew and trusted and would make Olympia feel more like home. He asked
me to work for him in the Mansion, and my husband to be a member of his cabinet.
It was a wild eight years, and we haven’t regretted it for a moment. It was a fabulous
experience.
We had an apartment in Olympia. We kept our home in Seattle and came home on weekends.
So we had the best of both worlds. We have a daughter and son-in-law and grandchildren
who live in Seattle. So of course, we wanted to be home every weekend to spend time
with them and maintain contact with friends. Very difficult. Once you’re in Olympia,
there’s almost an invisible curtain you cross heading down. Your Seattle life is
left behind. Your Olympia life begins. It was very difficult to stay in contact
physically and mentally with Seattle people. So coming home on weekends really kept
those ties open.
My position at the Mansion was to run it just like anybody runs their own household.
I ordered food and supplies. I paid all the bills, kept the checkbook. I went to
the store and purchased items. When somebody wanted to have an event at the mansion,
I oversaw the event from beginning to end. Guest lists, invitations, deciding the
menu. I worked with the staff, the groundskeepers, security. There were times when
I actually was in the kitchen washing dishes if Mansion employees were ill. I know
now how to properly serve a formal event at the Mansion. There’s nothing I haven’t
done in the Mansion that other staff people do. It was just one great big house.
And we helped each other.
I was also Mrs. Locke’s personal assistant, so I kept her calendar, organized her
events, her papers, her speeches. And when the kids arrived, I became their scheduler
as well. Their activities had to mesh with the First Lady’s activities, which often
had to mesh with the Governor’s activities. So I became a master scheduler in those
eight years. Dropped a few balls, but not many in the time I was there.
You know, I have to say that my favorite job at the Mansion was that five minutes
before an event begins. You check to make sure everything’s ready. You call the
kitchen and say “five minutes”. You wait at the door for that first guest. And you
open the door to this fabulous structure and greet these people who sometimes are
there for the first time. They are just in awe of being in this building. And just
seeing that look on their face was amazing.
And my favorite events to do with the Mansion were employee events. These are the
people who really hold the State together. I call them meat and potatoes people.
Now, they don’t always get to do the glamorous things. To have a recognition event
from different departments or different agencies at the Mansion and to welcome fellow
State employees was wonderful.
One thing that people didn’t realize was that we really needed a firm and accurate
guest list. The guest list was not only for security purposes, but also for meal
planning and food preparation. If we were expecting 120 people, we prepared for
that number. And, we needed the count about four days prior to the event. That allowed
our chef, Kyle Fulwiler, to plan and order her menu items. It gave me the time to
prepare the guest list, the nametags and do anything else that had to be done.
But some people would come in at the last minute and hand me a piece of paper and
say, “Well, twenty more people are coming this evening.” It’s very difficult to
stay gracious and say, “Well, we’ll do what we can.” We had to alert Kyle to say
that we’ve got twenty more people, because we just bought what we needed. We really
operated on a very fine line, our budget. We had to somehow make the event work,
to try to get the names on the list so that the State Patrol had the correct guest
list when they came up the drive, to get the additional nametags done. Dolores would
be in our office making the nametags at the last minute. Events like that were very
challenging. That happened only two or three times in eight years. But then it was
really tough to be gracious the whole time when you were wringing your hands and
asking yourself, how are we going to make this event work smoothly?
I’m not sure people who came ever really saw that, because everyone pitched in.
I mean, from the housekeepers to the chef. You’d say, “Gee, we’re short here,” everyone
pitched in. It was really great. I would sometimes call my husband at the last minute
and say, “So and so is sick and can’t hang coats.” He’d put his suit back on, come
over to the Mansion, and he’d hang coats for an event. “So and so can’t come to
pour the wine.” He’d come back to the Mansion and pour the wine. So everybody pitched
in. And that made the events work. But yes, adding people at the last minute, for
a variety of reasons, could be very challenging. I don’t think it ever showed.
To have Governor Locke elected as the first Asian American governor on our mainland
was a huge event. We knew it was something very special, but we didn’t realize how
big it was until we were actually in the Mansion. We had press from Pacific Rim
countries attend everything we ever did. We had so many people who wanted to come
to the Mansion and want to learn about Olympia and our state process. The pride,
the ethnic pride in the Asian community was absolutely overwhelming. None of us,
I don’t think, were prepared for how huge it was to have the Governor and Mrs. Locke
as role models as Governor and First Lady. You know, you grow up and you think is
anybody that looks like me ever going to be in a place like this? It makes me realize
in this current presidential election on the Democratic side how exciting it is
to have a woman and a person of color running to be the president of the United
States, what steps we’ve taken in my lifetime. So that was probably the event that
stands out the most. It was just a very historic time.
Governor Locke was invited to China many times and was treated like a rock star.
Not only was he capable and smart and good, but also he was a great role model for
people of color, particularly in the Asian American community.
It had been so long since children had been in the Mansion, everyone had to learn
how to act with young children as residents. There were things that we had to work
around. For a while we had to discontinue tours until Emily got older. We had to
childproof the Mansion with gates in the kitchen that our chef had to actually open
and shut to access her stove until Emily got a little bit bigger. General Administration
surveyed the Mansion and installed safely items including Plexiglas on the railings
so that the children couldn’t fall through. But the first memory is probably just
the life the children brought into the atmosphere and also much more of a homey
touch.
I think the Locke administration was more of a down home administration because
of the children. They just brought lightness and a gaiety. When taking yourself
too seriously, Emily or Dylan would say something. And you’d say, “We’re just people
who happen to be in the Mansion right now.”
I remember one day the Governor was making his remarks and being very statesmanlike.
And all of a sudden, this little voice from the balcony says, “Hi, Daddy!” Well,
the Governor thought, “Oh, no!” But everybody loved it! They waved at Emily and
she waved back. She was just like the darling of the Mansion when she was a toddler.
I was guilty of bringing the kids in there to peek over the balcony. Oftentimes
they’d go there before they went to bed at night, when the nanny was there taking
care of them, and give a goodnight wave.
There is a mosaic reproduction of the State seal in the main entry. Emily would
sit down in the middle of that seal and kind of spin like a little top and point
at the letters. She learned her ABCs very young and began to read at a very, very
early age. But she learned a lot of her letters on that State seal. We went to “George
School” in the entryway of the Mansion.
As they got older, Emily and Dylan would wander downstairs and visit me in my office.
I saw them in the morning when they left for school and when they returned at the
end of the day. We did activities in the office, and they liked to help Kyle in
the kitchen when they got older. And there were bicycles and toys all over the mansion.
I always tell Emily and Dylan they taught me how to be a grandmother. I had not
been around little children for a long time. My grandchildren were born during my
Mansion years. Emily and Dylan were my teachers. I’m still close to Emily and Dylan.
I regret I didn’t get to know Madeline. She was born in November and they left in
January. So she was just an infant. We never really knew each other. But I’ll always
treasure my times with Emily and Dylan in the Mansion.
The Mansion is a beautiful, beautiful building, but it’s kind of dark and museum-like
on the main floor. But we had the conversation and laughter of kids and a teddy
bear here, a book there and backpack at the foot of the stairs. It just made everything
much more homelike. So it really made our years there a whole lot of fun.
Everyone seems to have heard the story of our bats. You know at first we didn’t
pay that much attention to the bat. We just thought, it scooted in, and we scooted
it out, and that was it. But we had nine bats in about thirteen days. One bat was
in the private bedroom of the Lockes when Emily was an infant in a bassinette. Then
it got to be a scary thing. The whole Locke family had to have rabies vaccines.
Emily was three months old.
They had to consult with the CDC [Center for Disease Control] and pediatricians
about just how much serum to use on one so tiny. When Mona and Gary got their shots,
that was one thing, but I think they both cried every time Emily, this tiny little
three-month old, had to have her shots. It’s quite a series of shots. But that’s
what they had to do to be safe.
The last bat in the Mansion actually made its way down the laundry chute. One of
the housekeepers reached in to take the laundry out of a basket, and a bat flew
up. That’s when we all said, “This is it. We have to do something.”
It got to the point where I would take a flashlight and look under my desk each
morning. I just didn’t want to put my legs under my desk, because I knew if I touched
anything I would have a heart attack.
There were times when a bat would fly from the Drawing Room to the Ballroom and
that ceiling is very low. They were flying back and forth at eye level.
The General Administration people came in and consulted with experts. A lot of companies
had dealt with bats. There was a group in Austin, Texas, called Bat Amnesty who
sent us reams and reams of material, and how useful they are outside. They’re just
not so useful inside.
We learned that the area where those big trees are by the Mansion was a natural
gathering place for the bats -- the bugs, the trees, and the moisture from the lake
-- bat heaven! So that’s where they congregated. The Mansion was bat proofed. They
had to seal up every single crack in the building. You would not believe the tiny
spaces they could squeeze through. The procedure took several days. The Lockes moved
out into a private residence during that time. Some of the bats were inside when
the Mansion was sealed, so we had to wait for them all to come out.
I remember once when we were upstairs, the cat started getting really freaky in
front of the radiator. Out oozes a bat. There were very large ferns in front of
the big window in the Ballroom. One day a bat was hanging in the fern and flew out.
Lots of bat stories. After the bat proofing, we never had another bat.
The bat patrol came twice a year and checked upstairs for what they called “bat
evidence.” You know what that might be. That was a new phrase we learned, “bat evidence”.
It was a scary, exciting, weird time, all rolled into one. And for years, wherever
I went, or Mona and Gary went, the first question people asked was about the bats.
Amazing. Amazing.
We also had a lot of leaks in the Mansion. There was a time we had nine buckets
throughout the Mansion catching the leaks. Some of them were in the Gallery. One
leak came down the mural in the State Dining Room. We were very worried about permanent
damage there. The Daily Olympian learned about our problems in the Mansion and ran
a story complete with photos. This was the year that the House of Representatives
was tied. There were two State Representatives, one Democrat and one Republican,
who co-chaired the committee that oversaw the Mansion. They made an appointment
to come over to walk through the Mansion. So they saw the leaks, learned of other
problems and toured the private quarters. The private quarters looked like a rumpus
room in a 1970s fraternity house. No one wanted to spend money on furniture. The
State budgets were tight, and there were so many other pressing issues. So no Governor
wanted to say, look at the living quarters. These really are not very fancy. But
Rep. Maryann Mitchell, R, Federal Way, and Rep. Ed Murray, D, Seattle, were appalled
and were key in the Mansion project. They knew they had to do something to save
the building. The water damage was a major problem, who knows what could have happened.
So they went back to their committee, came up with a budget and worked with GA [General
Administration]. They hired an architect and contractor. I went to weekly meetings
for many months planning every inch of the remodel. And we found a house to relocate
the Lockes. Actually my husband found the house. He was with a friend who knew the
woman who owned the house. He called me up and he said, “Gee, so and so told me
about this house. You might want to check it out.” We checked it out. It turned
out to be perfect because it was on a dead end street. The location provided a lot
of privacy – an important factor. We moved the Lockes into this house which was
a big job. Packing up and deciding what stays at the Mansion, what goes to the temporary
residence. We worked with the architect knowing that what we were planning at the
Mansion was not just for this family, but also for all future families. One area
that really needed attention was the upstairs hallway. When tours occurred, there
are two beautiful bedrooms on what I call the mezzanine level, that were part of
the tour. When people were going up to those bedrooms, all they had to do was an
about face and you could see the hallway and the private quarters that Mrs. Locke
had to walk down to get to the children’s bedrooms from her bedroom, and also to
her office. There was absolutely no privacy.
With the redo, we constructed a privacy wall and created a hallway behind that privacy
wall so the family could move around like any other family does. That was wonderful.
Also, before the remodel, there was no kitchen upstairs. Anytime Mrs. Locke needed
to cook their family meal, and they did do their own cooking, she had to look at
the schedule. Are we having a reception or dinner tonight? When can I get into the
kitchen? When can I cook for the kids? When can we eat so we’re out of the way of
Kyle and the staff to prepare for an event? For lunch, for breakfast, if there were
tours, she would come down the stairway and watch until there was no one and then
dash into the kitchen to fix a meal for the kids.
With a new baby, you know how tired you are. Mrs. Locke had to come downstairs into
the kitchen where it was dark and often chilly, to heat a bottle to go back upstairs.
It was a very, very difficult life with no kitchen in the private quarters. The
addition of a kitchen was one of the first requests so that any First Family will
have more independence. It really made everything run more smoothly not only for
the First Family, but also for the Mansion kitchen for entertaining. I really don’t
know how they lived all those months with no kitchen. It was beyond me. It was an
unbelievable inconvenience especially with kids. That remodel worked out great.
We did some reconfiguration, switched some rooms around to make them work better.
But the addition of the kitchen and the privacy hall was fabulous.
We got new furniture. It was nothing grand and glorious, but it was new and matched.
GA was very good. They watched for sales. We got good, sturdy, useful pieces, and
it made the private quarters seem more like a home. Because when you stop and think
what you’re asking a First Family to do, to give up the coziness of their home,
the comfort of their home, to move into a Mansion that is beautiful and museum-like
on the first floor, but not all that great in the private quarters. After the remodel,
it was like moving into a mini-condominium. I think any First Family would be very
comfortable in the private quarters the way they are now configured.
The people at GA did a great job. Vicki Poitra oversaw the project. She just did
a fabulous job as did the architects. And it turned out to be very, very nice living
space.
It was about eight or nine months. And during that time, of course, we couldn’t
do any events at the Mansion. So there was a loss not to be having those events.
But in the long run, it was all worth it. What I called the insides of the Mansion
were all updated with new wiring, new plumbing, structural repairs and improvements,
new electrical. They updated the circuitry for computers. The remodel wasn’t just
cosmetic or to make the living quarters better. The whole infrastructure of the
Mansion was improved and strengthened. The leaks were sealed. Stop and think how
old that building is-- a hundred years old now. The workers would open up some of
the walls and we’d listen to the contractor say, “Come and look at this!” They’d
say, “Look at this wiring!” Or, “Look at this pipe!” Or “We’ve never seen anything
like that!” So every time you opened up a wall, it was a new experience of what
you’re going to find.
I think this was the first time some of those things had been replaced. They had
to seal up all the leaks. They brought in infrared cameras and lights that showed
moisture so they could track and seal leaks and repair the roof. So, it wasn’t just
the private quarters. That was the frosting on the cake. But it was the infrastructure
of the Mansion that was the most important - to make sure the building’s going to
stand another hundred years.
I don’t think we were even back a year when the earthquake hit. We were just getting
up and running again. We were just getting a full calendar. We were just getting
in the swing of things with tours and events. And then the earthquake hit on a Wednesday,
which is tour day. I will never forget that morning. The State Patrol cadet was
outside the Mansion. He’d just brought the mail in and gone back out to the cadet
shack when it hit. He ran back in.
I said, “This is an earthquake.” My first concern was getting everyone out. Our
tour was a group of senior citizen ladies; nine or ten, all dressed up, lovely suits
and pumps, to visit the Mansion. I just knew we had to get them out quickly. First
I’m using my Mansion voice, “It’s time to leave the mansion.” But they were stunned
and in shock and not moving. And finally I just remember screaming, “You! You in
the red coat! Out! Now!” That is what I had to do. And then she just ran out and
the others followed. But, it was such a shock that I had to do that.
We got everybody out. The noise was deafening. It was like a freight train. You
could hear the bricks grinding back and forth and you could hear the tinkling of
the chandeliers. They were swinging wildly. So you had the tinkling, the roaring
and the grinding. I can hear it today. I mean, it was amazing.
Mrs. Locke was upstairs with Emily and Dylan and Hai, one of the housekeepers. I
ran upstairs after I got the ladies out. The cadets ran in immediately and got upstairs
to get the First Family out while I was working with the tour group. Things were
crashing. I could hear the things falling out of the shelves in the kitchen. I was
thinking about the State china. We got the Lockes out. The TV did fall off the shelf
in their living room, and one of the children was in that room within feet of the
TV. Hai helped to protect the children along with Mrs. Locke. Once downstairs, the
State Patrol put them in the car and drove off. Because we didn’t know about aftershocks,
we didn’t know if any of the bricks would tumble down. This was the beginning of
another adventure.
There was not a lot of structural damage inside, but there were cracks in every
room. Every single room. All cosmetic. But after we had just completed the remodeling
it was just a heartbreak to go in every room and see these cracks – some quite large.
Well, it was fixed with a lot of Spackle and paint, and it took a lot of time. The
First Family had to move out again. I think it was a week before they could move
back. Staff was allowed to return the next day after they made sure there was no
danger on the main floor.
The serious damage to the Mansion was on the outside – the bricks all loosened and
all had to be reattached, which took forever. So the Mansion was closed, once again,
for activities due to the extreme danger with the bricks. It was a safety issue.
We had to work with FEMA and GA to get up and running again – quite a process.
Stop and think about the very unusual things that happened to the Lockes. The bats
- they had to move out. The remodel - they had to move out. The earthquake - they
had to move out. Stop and think when you’ve got kids and toys and favorite clothes
and things. It would have been an imposition on any family. But, this was an active
First Family with two children. And the Governor still had to carry on business.
Mrs. Locke still had First Lady activities. They were so gracious. I would have
been as grumpy as could be. By the third time I had to move out, I think I would
have said, “You’ve got to be kidding!” They had an attitude like, well, what are
you going to do? So it was really great to work with them through all of these adventures.
They really put up with a lot. So much more than anyone can know.
When they first moved down, it was so exciting. Mona was pregnant. Emily was born
in March. And having the State Patrol with you, or watching over you twenty-four
hours a day. The State Patrol is charged with providing protection for the First
Family. That is their mission. The Executive Protection Unit [EPU]. They had to
educate Gary and Mona and all of us, actually, what that meant. It meant that a
State Patrol person was with you every time you left the Mansion. And that’s just
what had to happen.
It’s very confining. At first it was very difficult. Every time they left to do
anything we had to call to make sure someone was available. We got it down pat after
a while. We made schedules and all of that worked very well. And there was always
a State Patrol cadet on the premises. It was very difficult to always have someone
with you. You couldn’t be spontaneous about things. You couldn’t just say, “Gee,
I think I’ll go to the mall,” or, “Gee, I think I’ll go to the library with the
kids for story hour.” You had to be sure someone was available.
And we became very close to, we called them EPUs, and worked very well together.
Whenever they brought a new patrol person on board, they asked me to be on the interview
panel-- which was an honor--to see how they were going to work with the family,
and the personalities. But they were all great. We had some males and some females.
If the children went someplace, they had to have someone with them as well. Getting
used to that was really difficult.
The whole privacy issue was something. They’d go shopping, and people would peer
in their cart to see what they were buying. And if you’re going to the bookstore,
what books are you buying to read? What kind of toys are you buying for your children?
And what kind of ice cream does the Governor eat? People were so curious, but I
don’t think they meant to be rude. The Lockes were kind of celebrities in Olympia.
They’d go out to Costco and the Governor would have on flip-flops, a pair of shorts
and a T-shirt. He’s just like anybody else – but he happens to be the Governor.
I was also surprised that people would try to weasel information out of me. One
of my close personal friends was a reporter, and he used to say, “You can tell me.”
I said, “I can’t tell you anything!” When the Governor and Mrs. Locke asked me to
come down and be at the Mansion and Mrs. Locke’s assistant, they knew I was trustworthy.
They knew I didn’t tell secrets, they knew I wouldn’t tell tales. I was in awe of
their position, but because we’re also personal friends, it was just a good fit.
And, you know, every time I walked up that driveway to the Mansion, it was never
ever a routine walk. Looking at the Mansion was always a treat -- whatever the time
of year, the fall colors or the spring flowers, the Legislative Building to the
left. It gave me goose bumps. It does now – just remembering. Every time I walked
up that driveway, I thought, how could anybody be so fortunate to work in this fabulous
building?