Nany Evans oral history.indd - Washington Secretary of State

Evans: Well, Elsie was one. She was with us quite a long while. She was a widow from
Longview. And she had the most wonderful family in the area. She had three or four
children. When she was going to be off for a long weekend, they would pick her up and
take her back down to be with them. They were a wonderful family. And Elsie was just
another grandmother in the house. She was just great. Elsie loved to bake. She was the
one who started making these wonderfully shaped birthday cakes for the boys. They’d be
in the shape of whatever they were into – a football player or whatever. She was so good
about things like that, just a pleasure to have in the house.
Hughes: Did you have any people you hired who turned out to be a colossal pain?
Evans: Oh yes. One I fired on the spot. He was an alcoholic, and I didn’t know it. He was a
good cook, too. It was a shame. He was probably one of the best cooks I hired because he
had really gone to culinary school. I actually had two who were dipping into the sauce. We
had an important dinner party. He appeared very late, and I just said “That’s it, goodbye.”
Hughes: What could you pay a cook, Nancy?
Evans: I don’t remember. I have no idea.
Hughes: People have the impression that if you’re in the Governor’s Mansion and you
have a cook that you’re having crêpe Suzette and prime rib every night.
Evans: No. You have to be able to buy the groceries. … And I also cooked. You know, the
cook and housekeeper had time off, obviously. So they would go off on their days off and I
would cook.
Hughes: So you were going out and doing the shopping once a week in the station wagon
… pushing a cart in the supermarket?
Evans: Yes, I bought everything. That was my decision.
Hughes: So if you were going to have a big dinner—
Evans: Well, if it was a large dinner, 50, 60, whatever people, I would not do the shopping.
There would be a caterer. But that came out of the budget, too. So it was very, very limited.
Hughes: Did you have a separate food budget?
Evans: No. You had a separate Mansion budget. And that I could do with what I wanted.
Hughes: You could feed your family from that budget – the everyday stuff like hot dogs,
pot roast, Mac & Cheese?
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