Name Louise Shadduck Role Journalist | Died May 4, 2008 | |
 | ||
Books Andy Little: Idaho Sheep King, Doctors with buggies, snowshoes, and planes, At the Edge of the Ice, Rodeo Idaho | ||
Louise M. Shadduck (October 14, 1915 – May 4, 2008) the “Lioness of Idaho” was an Idaho journalist, political activist, public servant, author, speaker and lobbyist, renowned for an uncanny memory of names and people. As Idaho’s popular Secretary of Commerce and Development, often leading visiting business executives on horseback adventures in the mountains, she stimulated the state’s economy to its ten best years of growth. Administrative assistant to two governors, a U.S. Senator and a Congressman, author of five history books, president of the National Federation of Press Women and independent lobbyist with major accomplishments in forestry and human rights, she was one of Idaho’s most decorated and celebrated citizens.
Contents
Early life
Born on a dairy farm with six brothers, Shadduck learned quickly to hold her own in a man’s world. She could play dolls and help her mother, but she could also do chores and roughhouse with her brothers, and drove the family truck as soon as she could reach the pedals. She wrote for her high school newspaper, did farm chores and was a cheerleader during the Great Depression. Shortly after graduation she was hired as a reporter for the Coeur d'Alene Press.
Political life
The Press sent Shadduck to report on the 1944 Republican National Convention where she made many friends and personal contacts, founding a Young Republicans organization in North Idaho and quickly moved up to state and national recognition in that organization. After many tries, in 1949 Idaho’s governor C. A. Robins finally convinced her to be his publicity assistant and she was quickly promoted to administrative assistant, the first woman in that office. She continued in that office with his successor Leonard B. Jordan, until 1952 when U.S. Senator Henry Dworshak finally convinced her to come to Washington and work for him. In 1956 she made a run for United States Congress, against Democrat Gracie Pfost. During the campaign Shadduck spoke for Eisenhower’s peace time nuclear policy in a nationally televised speech at the Republican National Convention. Soon after losing 45/55 to Pfost, Shadduck was asked by Idaho’s Governor Smylie to take over the state’s struggling Department of Commerce and Development, giving her a blank slate to do it her way. Starting with a minimal budget and an office in the State House attic, Shadduck began a strategy of promotion which included back country horseback trips with business leaders from around the country. She enticed three national and international Girl Scout and Boy Scout events, implemented development of Farragut State Park and brought other national conventions to Idaho. Her ten-year tenure coincides with Idaho’s per capita income rising to its highest point in the century.
Following the defeat of Governor Smylie she became administrative assistant to Idaho’s 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 white supremacist group in northern Idaho, she lobbied effectively for an amendment to 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. In 1979 she accompanied Senator Frank Church and others on a major trade delegation to China where she spoke about and promoted cooperation in forestry between the two nations.
Writing and later years
Shadduck continued to write articles for various Idaho newspapers and publications. She was president of the Idaho Federation of Press Women, and from 1971 to 1973 was president of the National Federation of Press Women and spoke in Israel at the World Association of Women Journalists in a program which also included Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. Shadduck wrote five books, Idaho Sheep King, Doctors with Buggies, Snowshoes and Planes, At the Edge of the Ice, Rodeo Idaho, and The House that Victor Built. An amateur artist, she promoted the arts throughout her life. Shadduck was celebrated throughout Idaho for her reputation of never forgetting a name or a person’s story. One of her fondest joys was helping young people begin their college or professional careers and it is this person-to-person friendship that is most often credited as the source of her tremendous political power behind a great deal of Idaho’s history. She lived 92 years, and because she never married she was active full-time to speaking engagements and snowplowed her own road up to within months of her death. A publisher’s proof of her last book, The House that Victor Built was brought to her death bed.
Accolades and awards
• Silver and Gold Award from University of Idaho 1988 • Monongahela Forestry Leadership Award from National Forest Products Association • Silver Anvil Award from Public Relations Society of America • Idaho Press Women’s Woman of Achievement Award 1967 and 1994 • National Federation of Press Women’s President’s Award and Hall of Fame • Outstanding Idahoan from the Idaho Statesman • Distinguished Member Trophy from Boise Ad Club • Idaho Hall of Fame, 1996 • Esto Perpetua award of Idaho Historical Society • Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Idaho 1969 • Louise Shadduck Office Building, Idaho Department of Lands • A bronze bust of Shadduck is among the displays rotated into the Idaho State House.