Mary Ellen McCaffree

1918 - 2014

Mary Ellen McCaffree

Mary Ellen died at her home in Snohomish on June 24 at 96 years. Born February 25, 1918 at the farm home of her parents, Dwight E. and Mary Alberta Hull, north of El Dorado, Kansas, she is survived by her husband of 73 years, Kenneth M. McCaffree, five children: James (Ruthann) University Place; Charles (Lee) Orinda, CA; Nancy (Aubrey) Carter, Snohomish; Mary (Jack) Johnston, Everett and David (Alex) Everett, 16 grandchildren and 21 great grandchildren.

Mary Ellen grew up in a close knit agricultural family near the Flint Hills in south central Kansas. She met her husband to be in high school. They went to the local junior college and she on to Kansas State University for a BS degree in home economics. She married in 1941 and soon started her family. After WWII and graduate school at the University of Chicago, the family came to Seattle in 1949. Mary Ellen lived in the Seattle area since, including 25 years on the Kitsap peninsula. She was a devoted mother and wife and with five children there was always plenty to do.

In the mid-1950's, Mary Ellen became active in the League of Women Voters, served as President of the Seattle League and was a prime mover in League redistricting initiatives. In 1962 she was elected to a seat in the House of Representatives from the 32nd District which she represented for the following eight years. Her major legislative interests and efforts were for major tax reforms and these led to her appointment as the first woman director of the State Department of Revenue.

A stalwart advocate of education, her legislative achievements included assisting in the establishment of the state's community college system and of Evergreen State College. As sponsor of the 18 year old voting rights constitutional amendment she worked with college students across the state. She was an advocate of open space, pollution control and shoreline management, and served on the initial boards that wrote the first set of regulations in these areas. She completed her political career with three years as King County Budget Director and in Washington D.C., as the administrative assistant, chief of staff of U. S. Senator Slade Gorton, 1981-3.

Upon her return from Washington, D.C., Mary Ellen helped in her local community, in the Hansville Community Center, on the Water District Board of Commissioners, and with a major focus on open space policies and of the private land trust movement as founder, treasurer and board member of the Great Peninsula Conservancy.

Mary Ellen was an active life time member of the Methodist Church. In the 1990's she and her husband became charter members of a new church in Kingston, the Redeemer United Methodist Church.

In recent years she devoted her time to writing both a joint autobiography with her husband and the story of her decade in the Washington legislature. Politics of the Possible, written with Anne McNamee Corbett, and published at age 92, was for her grandchildren to demonstrate to them and their generation that "public service is a commendable activity."

A memorial service will be held at 1:00 p.m., Saturday, July 19 at the University Temple United Methodist Church, 1415 N.E. 43rd St., Seattle with a reception following. Contributions in lieu of flowers may be sent either to the Great Peninsula Conservancy, 423 Pacific Ave, Suite 401, Bremerton, WA 98337 or to the Group Health Foundation, P.O. Box 34015, Seattle WA, 98124-4015, noted as a memorial for Mary Ellen McCaffree.