Oral history interview with Lois D. Siegmund [Sound Recording 01]

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SR1344_T01S1

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Oral history interview with Lois D. Siegmund [Sound Recording 01]

Date(s)

  • 1988-06-23 (Creation)

Extent

Audiocassette; 00:29:09

Name of creator

(1910-1999)

Biographical history

Lois Dejardin Siegmund, nee Lois Sarah Dejardin, was born in Gervais, Oregon, in 1910. She attended Northwestern Business College in Portland, but never finished her degree. Instead, she accepted a position in the corporation department for the state of Oregon in 1929. She moved to the highway department in 1932. In 1937, she and Jacob Laurence Siegmund were married; they later had one child. After they married, she left government work to run a meat market with Siegmund. In 1951, she returned to the Legislature to work as a secretary for Marion County Representative Roy Houck. When Houck declined to run for re-election, she began working for Representative Mark Hatfield instead. She continued to work as Hatfield's secretary while he served as a state senator, as Oregon secretary of state, and as Oregon governor. After Hatfield was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1966, she remained in Oregon and worked for secretary of state Clay Myers from 1968 until her retirement in 1972. She died in 1999.

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Tape 1, Side 1. This oral history interview with Lois D. Siegmund was conducted by Clark Hansen at Siegmund's home in Salem, Oregon, on June 23, 1988. In this interview, Siegmund discusses her early life in Gervais, Oregon, including her memories of life during World War I. She then discusses her early career in state government, her marriage to Jacob Laurence Siegmund, and quitting state government to work in a meat market with her husband. Siegmund then discusses returning to state government in 1951 as a legislative secretary, first for Representative Roy Houck, then for Mark Hatfield. She talks about Hatfield’s campaign for the state Senate in 1954 and about working as a secretary for him in the Senate. She also discusses Hatfield’s campaign for Oregon secretary of state in 1956. She describes her duties as Hatfield’s personal secretary, other members of Hatfield’s staff, and Hatfield’s marriage to Antoinette Kuzmanich. Siegmund then discusses Hatfield’s 1958 campaign for Oregon governor. She talks about the changes in Hatfield’s staff after his election. She shares anecdotes about major events that occurred during his governorship, including the 1962 Columbus Day Storm, Hatfield’s 1964 keynote speech at the Republican National Convention, and her role in keeping Hatfield on schedule. She also talks about Hatfield’s relationship with Tom McCall, his campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1967, and her reasons for not going with him to Washington, D.C. She closes the interview by discussing her continued relationship with Hatfield.

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Joint copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society and Willamette University. Use is allowed according to the following license: Creative Commons - BY-NC-SA: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

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  • English

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