Nany Evans oral history.indd - Washington Secretary of State

a couple of years in Washington, D.C., because there were “so many opportunities.”
Evans: Well, in our discussion before Dan finally said yes to Governor Spellman, I just said,
“I’d be happy to do it. I don’t care. It’s not that I want you to do it, because I don’t care
that much. I just think it would be an interesting time, and an interesting place to live, and
maybe a good experience for us” – he and I, as well as the boys, although they were pretty
much getting to be on their own. But, yes, I thought it would be a good experience for us,
but I didn’t care if he didn’t do it.
Trova Heffernan (Legacy Project Director): You’re married to such an icon of Washington
politics — I mean, with the development of the “Dan Evans Republican” wing of the party
and everything he did.
Evans: I know. I don’t picture him that way, but I know some people do.
Heffernan: That’s what I’m wondering. And you must be so proud of him.
Evans: I am.
Heffernan: But about what the most? I mean is it his public life? Is it who he is as a father,
the person that people don’t see?
Evans: Well, I’m proud of him in all ways – all those ways. I can also be very mad at
him. You must understand that. I can get so mad at him – and he at me. So we’re very
normal that way. We have fights, but you know, then you get over it. But I’m constantly
learning the depth of knowledge he has about an issue, where I just jump into it. There
was something we were discussing just recently, and I just go off, “Da, da, da, da, da, da.”
And he said, “Yeah, but how do you know that? Just because you read it it’s true?” Well,
of course later it came out that what I was reading was not true and he was absolutely
right. And it makes me so mad that he’s always right on these things. So I appreciate
his unwillingness to jump into forming his ideas just because that’s what he thinks at the
time. He thinks it through and looks for knowledge, the background, all the facts and
details of the issue before he comes to his conclusion. And I appreciate that because it’s
something that doesn’t happen often enough. So much of what you read in the paper is
this immediate visceral reaction by people, and Dan just never does that. He knows for a
fact why he’s saying something.
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