Read Politics Never Broke His Heart - Washington Secretary of State

GROWING UP
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post at the Medina dock where the Spellman kids boarded the Ariel, a tired
little boat that chugged from dock to dock. 4
“My mother never had another sick day after we moved to Hunts
Point,” Spellman says. That’s not quite so, according to his sister. Being two
years older, and female, gave Mary a different perspective. Their parents
were close, she says, but Lela’s nerves were often frayed because the dynamics
of the household were tricky. Bart maintained he was tough on the
boys “for their own good” and had dark moods. Mother was “the nurturing,
loving one in the family,” fundamentally a down-to-earth farm girl. The
children cherished their summertime visits to Grandma Cushman’s place
in Oregon. She was up by 5 to fix breakfast for the hired hands.
Though Lela Spellman never returned to the classroom, she was always
a teacher. “She read to us at night—every night,” John remembers,
eyes brightening. There were family stories about their ancestors, including
great-grandpa David Crockett Cushman and his wife Maggie. At 2,
legend had it, Maggie was sucked out of her Kansas home by a tornado
and plopped down unharmed two miles away. There were books about the
Pilgrims, cowboys and Indians, and classics like Charles Dickens’ Nicholas
Nickleby and David Copperfield. “I was the youngest, so some of it went right
over my head, but she believed in oral presentation and made the stories
come alive.”
Lela Spellman was more faithful about Mass than her cradle Catholic
husband, taking pains to ensure her children were steeped in their faith.
The nuns came over from Seattle every Sunday to teach the Baltimore
Catechism. Lela was confirmed by the archbishop at the same time as John
and set the standard for the piety that has been a large part of his life. Bart
had a short fuse with officious priests. When one complained about the
high cost of living and remarked that his shoes cost $125, Bart was scandalized.
Lela had a falling out with the same priest over something to do with
the Ladies’ Altar Society and told him off in a letter. “Mother would have
been a good women’s libber,” Mary Spellman says. “She really stood up for
people’s rights, which wasn’t easy in those days.”
Bart was a busy man, what with business, coaching and overseeing the
judges for Golden Gloves boxing matches. He was also active in the Seattle
Kennel Club. The Spellman kids met all the coaches and most of Seattle’s
bigwigs. They were nuts about sports, but Bart discouraged the boys—John
in particular—from taking football too seriously. The fractures and sprains
Bart had suffered took their toll as he grew older. He was 30 pounds heavier
than in his playing days, though never fat. His business suits were impeccable.
The real Bart Spellman was “a very bookish, private sort of man,”