Nany Evans oral history.indd - Washington Secretary of State

Hughes: Tell me about that.
Evans: I can’t. I just know that there were. Abortion might have been one of them; the ERA
perhaps.
Hughes: I can still see my mom wearing her red-and-yellow “ ERA Now” button.
Evans: That was a very important vote, issue, and disappointing that that didn’t pass.
Hughes: Well, it carried the day, finally. The amendment finally carried, didn’t it?
Evans: No.
Hughes: It didn’t in Washington State?
Evans: Oh, in Washington, yes.
Hughes: As usual, the females in Washington State were way ahead of the nation.
Evans: Of course.
Hughes: Just like votes for women.
Evans: Absolutely.
Hughes: We’re about to have an amazing 100 th anniversary of women’s suffrage in our state.
Evans: Is that right? I told you earlier that my mother was a suffragist as a young woman in
Chicago.
Hughes: She really was a dedicated suffragist, wasn’t she?
Evans: Well she was. And she worked at Hull House, which is in Chicago, for a while as a
young woman. That’s the one Jane Addams founded
Hughes: Remind me: What was she doing in Chicago?
Evans: She was going to the University of Chicago for a year and living with her brother.
Hughes: Did she talk fondly about those days?
Evans: Yes. And she always felt that it was a wonderful experience for her – a very good
education.
Hughes: Please tell us the story about her getting angry over the hearing aid business
while she was living with you at the Mansion.
Evans: Well, like so many elderly people, she had trouble with her hearing. I can still
remember, particularly at the dinner table, I’d get up and I’d want something and I’d go to
whisper to her – “Mother,” whatever. And she’d say, “Nancy, you know I can’t hear out of
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