Nany Evans oral history.indd - Washington Secretary of State

we’re sitting in the drawing room being interviewed. Dan always remembers it so well
because Chuck Herring said, “And, Mrs. Evans, you are the youngest First Lady at 32.” And I
say, “I’m 31.” Dan always thought that was very funny. Poor Danny, he was 4 years old and
he was just so excited; his parents are being interviewed for TV.
Then Herring said, “Can I have a tour?” And, of course, I say, “Sure Chuck, come
with me.” So we go down the hall and into the ballroom. Danny is just running all over the
place, and I’m trying to take his hand and be a mother. I can look back at it and smile, but
at the time I was just thinking, “Couldn’t you just stand here and be a nice, quiet little boy
for a few moments?” But, no, he was very excited in this new big house, with a new big
playroom that he had to play in.
Then we had decided to invite friends over to the Mansion after the Inaugural Ball.
But we would do it sort of by word-of-mouth as they came through the receiving line. The
Mansion staff that stayed on had prepared some refreshments. But we had no idea that
the ball started at 8, I think, and we were in line for three and a half hours.
Hughes: My gosh, your feet must have been killing you.
Evans: There were so many people; we had so many friends, so many supporters. This
was so exciting to them. I felt sorry for us, but worse for all those people who were getting
pushed and shoved.
Hughes: Was this at the Capitol?
Evans: No, this was at the Armory, the old Armory on the East Side of Olympia. Big bare,
empty room, and a stage, and we were on the stage. And, yes, my feet were very sore.
And my hand was very sore. No break. We just stood there. And we were trying to
remember to say “Come by the Mansion” to people, but it was noisy. By the time we got
to the Mansion it was midnight and the party already had been going on for a long time!
(laughing) It was shocking to me that people had been upstairs. It just didn’t occur to me
that people would be that obtuse.
Hughes: They’d just sort of wandered around in the family quarters?
Evans: Yes. In the children’s rooms, our room, you know all over. We found this out later.
So we finally went to bed at 4 in the morning or something – just exhausted because it had
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