BOOTH WHO? - Washington State Digital Archives

ut the environment pulls the trigger. They didn’t talk much about what ailed Uncle Edwin
back then. It was embarrassing when his hands shook.
Bill Clapp, Booth’s half-brother, let him work on some real-estate projects. It was
a sweet gesture that didn’t come to much because his attention span was spotty. When
Booth learned that depression and anxiety were common symptoms of Parkinson’s, he
was glad he wasn’t just losing his mind. The chemistry of his brain was under attack. “I was
bouncing along at the bottom,” he recalls. “I was dysfunctional. I went four to six weeks
one time without being able to sleep.” The first time he visited a neurologist in Seattle, he
complained that he couldn’t imagine feeling more terrible. “If I keep feeling this way,” he
said, “I don’t think I want to keep on living.” The doctor immediately called a Parkinson’s
specialist who said he could see the former governor immediately. “Can I trust you to
walk over there, or do you want me to take you?” the doctor asked intently. Relieved that
someone understood how desperate he was, Booth said he could make it on his own.
They adjusted his meds. A new drug called Mirapex quickly made him feel dramatically
better for a quite a while. About three weeks after first taking it, he felt “reborn” – “It was a
reawakening,” he said. He took up golf, which was physically and emotionally therapeutic.
Parkinson’s tremors often decrease, even disappear, when major muscles contract under
strenuous movement, so his chip shots had some extra oomph. He became president of the
board of Seattle’s Municipal Golf Association and joined the board of the Seattle/King County
YMCA. He tried to learn to cook, which “didn’t take,” and learned woodworking, which did. He
loved sawing and hammering “because I can see the results of what I do.” Working with power
saws, he joked, also required concentration. His sister Joan was the recipient of one of his first
projects, a handsome table. Other relatives and friends received rockers and clocks. He began
splitting his time between the condo in Seattle and his new basement workshop on Vashon
Island. His loved going to his grandchildren’s games. Gardner also returned to the Central Area
to help revitalize its athletic programs and tutor kids. He joined his old friend Emory Bundy in
opposing Sound Transit’s light-rail expansion plan, asserting that the money would be better
Booth during his TVW interview in 2000. Courtesy TVW.
spent on arterial improvements.
* * *
On May 22, 2000, sporting a gray
beard and his old impish grin, the 63-yearold
former governor gave his first major
interview in four years. It was with Denny
Heck on TVW, the public affairs network
his former chief of staff had helped found.
Looking healthy and sounding relaxed,
he revealed for the first time that he was
fighting Parkinson’s and announced that he
planned to launch a clinic bearing his name.
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