Nany Evans oral history.indd - Washington Secretary of State

Hughes: Was Neil McReynolds the governor’s press secretary from the get-go?
Evans: No. He was the second.
Hughes: Who was the first?
Evans: Wayne Jacobi. He wrote for The Seattle Times, I believe. He was there a couple of
years, and then Neil came on, and then Jay Fredericksen.
Hughes: So over the years, you got to visit the White House, and Pat Nixon and Betty Ford
both visited you at the Governor’s Mansion. Did they tell you any stories that the White
House wasn’t really all it was cracked up to be either?
Evans: No, you didn’t get into that sort of discussion. Besides, they keep very good care
of the White House. … I remember visiting when the Nixons were there, but particularly
it was the Johnsons who would open up the White House more when they had dinners
there. We were allowed to go upstairs into the private quarters.
Hughes: I read that about Lady Bird ( Johnson). Very hospitable.
Evans: And we did go upstairs. I remember one time it was so surprising to me because
we were on our own. We would just wander. Obviously if the door was closed you didn’t
open it. But I went into the Queens’ Bedroom, where many royal guests have stayed, and
then the Lincoln Bedroom. I was in the Lincoln Bedroom all by myself because nobody
happened to be in there at the time. I remember thinking, “This is wonderful just to be in
this room all by myself.” I just stood there for a minute, then quietly went around the room
and looked at everything and tried to put it in my mind as a picture. So that was fun.
Hughes: Meantime, back home in Olympia, when did you finally get some traction in
making the Legislature understand that this was not a very satisfactory living arrangement?
Evans: Well, something had to be done. Dan tried to get money for a significant remodel,
and the addition of some private spaces. They hired an architect, put a design together. I
believe it was a very good design. Then the numbers came in and the Legislature wouldn’t
do it. Dan afterwards regretted not having been stronger on it and insisting. But it just
didn’t happen.
And then as things got worse I thought of the idea of forming a foundation and doing it
privately – not the remodel of the house, but furnishings, that sort of thing. I visited Don
76