Louise M. Shadduck (October 14, 1915 – May 4, 2008), nicknamed the "Lioness of Idaho,"[1] was an Idaho journalist, political activist, public servant, author, speaker and lobbyist,[2] and the first woman in the United States to serve in a state Governor's executive cabinet level office as a departmental secretary.[3] As Idaho's popular newly-appointed Secretary of Commerce and Development, under 24th Governor of Idaho, Robert ("Bob") Smylis (1914-2004, served 1955-1967), and supervising a small office of the Department of Commerce and Development, often leading visiting corporate business executives on horseback adventures in the mountains, she stimulated the state's economy to its ten best years of growth. She was also administrative assistant to two governors, a U.S. Senator and a U.S. Representative (congressman).[4]
As a historian / author, she was renowned for her ability to remember names and personal stories.[5] Author of five history books, president of the National Federation of Press Women[4] and independent lobbyist with major accomplishments in forestry and human rights, she was one of Idaho's most decorated and celebrated citizens.[6]
Early life and education
Louise Shadduck was born in 1915 in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, the county seat and largest town of surrounding Kootenai County and region of North Idaho, just south of the United States-Canada international border.[5] and raised on a dairy farm in the North Idaho panhandle.[1][7] Her family had purchased the farm for $700 dollars at the foot of Canfield Mountain, raising vegetables, chickens, goats, and cows.[5] Shadduck drove the family truck as soon as she could reach the pedals,[7] and she and her six brothers took turns driving the family dairy milk truck on its route in the mornings before school.[6] She would perform farm chores and rough-house with her siblings, and also played dolls and helped her mother with the house.[7] She attended Dalton Grade School[5] and secondary school at Coeur d'Alene High School (CDAHS), (founded 1903) in Coeur d'Alene in the early 1930s.[6] At one point winning a journalism contest with a prize of a trip north to Alaska,[6] she wrote for her high school newspaper "The Viking Voice" (current name), and was a cheerleader for the "Vikings" sports teams during the economic hardships of the beginning Great Depression of the 1930s.[7][5] In 1969, she received an honorary degree from the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho.[1]
She was the first female administrative assistant to an Idaho governor, serving Governor Robins for four years from 1946 until 1950.[8] She left writing for The Press in 1948 but continued to occasionally write and sell freelance stories and columns. The Press in Coeur d'Alene published these stories under her "This and That" by-lined column.[5] She continued in that office with his successor, 23rd Governor Leonard B. Jordan (1899-1983, served 1951-1955), for another year until 1952 when again Idaho's then still U.S. SenatorHenry Dworshak finally convinced her to come to the federal national capital city of Washington, D.C. and work for him on his staff on Capitol Hill at the United States Capitol. During the 1952 presidential election campaign, Shadduck spoke for Republican Party presidential candidate and former United States Army commanding general in Europe during the earlier Second World War of Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969, served 1953-1961), and his "I Like Ike" themed election campaign, sharing a head table with the retired general and briefly Columbia University president and future 34th president.[5] She spoke in support of his peace-time nuclear policy proposals given in a nationally televised acceptance of his nomination speech at the 1952 Republican National Convention in Chicago.
In 1956[5] she made a run herself for the United States Congress, in the lower chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives against two-terms incumbent Democratic Party opponent Gracie Pfost (1906-1965) for the First Congressional District of Idaho seat. Representative Pfost, a Democrat had been elected four years earlier in the 1952 general elections, against the Republican "red tide" sweep that election year with candidate General Eisenhower's victory and a parallel majority in both legislative houses of Congress. Now four years later in the 1956 general elections, it was the first time in United States history where both major political parties chose female candidates facing off against each other in a House of Representatives / congressional race, and drew nation-wide attention in the news media. Congresswoman Pfost won a third term by a substantial margin in the First District of Idaho however, with a majority of 60,170 and 55.1% versus Shadduck's 48,174 and 44.9% of the votes cast, and continued serving for the next decade, 1953-1963, as the first woman in Idaho history to represent the state in the halls of Congress in Washington.[8] During this time Shadduck also helped and made appearances for President Eisenhower in his reelection campaign that same year.[5] She spoke from the podium in August 1956, at the Cow Palace arena in San Francisco, California addressing the G.O.P.'s 1956 Republican National Convention which was also televised nation-wide on the three major news networks.[5]
State secretary and lobbying
In 1958, she was the first woman in the United States to be a state secretary of commerce and development, when Idaho's Governor appointed her to the position[1] Given five employees and a budget of $140,000 dollars,[5] soon after losing 45% to 55% to Congresswoman Pfost, Shadduck was asked in 1958 by Idaho's 24th Governor, Robert ("Bob") Smylie (1914-2004, served 1955-1967), to take over the state's then struggling Idaho Department of Commerce and Development, giving her a blank slate to do it her way.[5] Under Governor Smylie, she became the first female head of a state executive department when she created and the ran the agency that later became the current Idaho Department of Commerce.[8] With an office in the State House / State Capitol top floor / attic, Shadduck began a strategy of promotion which included back country horseback and fishing trips with business leaders from other states.[5] She brought major Girl Scout and Boy Scout events to the state, implemented development of Farragut State Park and brought other national conventions meetings to Idaho. Her ten-year tenure coincides with Idaho's per capita income level rising to its highest point in the 20th century.[5]
Following the election defeat of Governor Smylie, she became administrative assistant to Idaho's U.S. Representative (congressman) Orval H. Hansen. After leaving his office, she lobbied for Idaho's forest industries and rewrote the timber tax laws to make it profitable for renewable logging on managed private property. Reacting to the arrival of a racistwhite supremacist group in northern Idaho, she lobbied effectively for an amendment to the state's malicious harassment laws. That amendment allowed for civil damages to be awarded in cases of malicious harassment and was instrumental in dismantling the supremacist compound.[9] In 1979,she accompanied U.S. Senator Frank Church (1924-1984, served 1957-1981), and others on a major trade delegation to the People's Republic of China (China),[5] where she spoke about and promoted cooperation in forestry issues between the two nations.[9]
Shadduck wrote five books, Idaho Sheep King, Doctors with Buggies, Snowshoes and Planes, At the Edge of the Ice, Rodeo Idaho, and Idaho Rodeo! Her final book, about Victor Dessert and titled The House that Victor Built, was published posthumously[1] and fortunately had a publisher's proof version to look over and scan brought to her deathbed at age 92 in 2008.
An amateur artist,[6] she promoted the arts throughout her life. Shadduck had a reputation for never forgetting a name or a person's story. She enjoyed mentoring young people beginning their studies or careers, and her personal friendships are cited as a source of her political influence in Idaho's history. She remained active with full-time speaking engagements until within several months of her death at the age of 92.
Personal life
Shadduck never married, with her great-niece stating in an interview that "it was because no man could keep up with her."[1] In 2005, she organized a family expedition to Enterprise, Oregon and Joseph, Oregon, where her great-grandfather had led a wagon train expedition along the historic Oregon Trail in the mid-19th century.[1] She died in Coeur d'Alene after a long illness. An obituary noted her passing published in the Los Angeles Times of Los Angeles, California. [3] Upon her death in 2008, she was survived by ten nieces and nephews.[1]
Accolades and awards
In 1990, she was chosen as one of the List of 100 "Idahoans who make a difference" by the Idaho Centennial Homecoming Commission.[1]
Bullard, Mike. Lioness of Idaho: Louise Shadduck and The Power of Polite. (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho: The Samuel Dow,) 2013.
Andy Little: Idaho Sheep King. (Caldwell, ID: Caxton Press 1990).
Doctors with Buggies, Snowshoes and Planes. (Coeur d'Alene, ID: Tamarack, 1993).
At the Edge of the Ice. (Coeur d'Alene, ID: Tamarack, 1996).
Rodeo Idaho. (Coeur d'Alene, ID: Tamarack, 2001).
The House that Victor Built. (Spokane: Walsworth Publishing, 2007)
Unpublished notes and papers in boxes of Shadduck's personal effects held by the University of Idaho Library in Moscow, Idaho, acquisition numbers ma1995-48 and ma2008-23, includes 27 boxes of unsorted and uncatalogued, personal effects.
