Former state legislator R. Lorraine Wojahn died Saturday evening in Tacoma at age 92.
She suffered from congestive heart failure.
Those who worked with Wojahn at the Capitol remember her as a fierce legislator who pioneered the way for women in both chambers.
She served as one of seven women in the House starting in 1969, and one of seven women in the Senate starting in 1977, serving 32 years total.
“She could stop any train that planned to run over Tacoma,” said Dennis Flannigan, who helped manage some of Wojahn’s campaigns and ultimately ran against her and won a seat on the Pierce County Council. “People did quake in their boots. I’ve never seen somebody stronger in Olympia.”
Wojahn, nicknamed the “Norse Goddess of Terror,” is known for helping create the state Department of Health and supporting the Equal Rights Amendment.
She served as president pro-tem of the Senate and was the first woman to preside during a session adjourning sine die.
If you wanted something done in Olympia that had to do with Tacoma, you went through Wojahn, former City of Tacoma lobbyist Robert Mack said.
“We would have to deal with her on almost everything, she was so important to the city in Olympia,” Mack said. “For the city of Tacoma, all roads led to Lorraine Wojahn.”
She helped develop the Washington State History Museum and the University of Washington Tacoma campus.
She ran for mayor of Tacoma in 1977 but lost.
Born in Tacoma in 1920, she graduated from Roosevelt High School and attended the University of Washington in Seattle.
She raised her family on East K Street on Tacoma’s McKinley Hill.
“She had a golden rule: ‘Do unto others before they do it to you,’ ” Mack said. “She was going to fight for what she believed was right, and she was not going to give in, and it meant she was just a formidable legislator.”
In a year when she was told there was no capital funding, she worked to get the restoration of the Sprague Building into the operating budget.
When a tax credit for historic buildings was set to expire, she worked to get an amendment to save it through both chambers that the opposition didn’t catch, Mack said.
“It wasn’t sneaky, but it was tricky,” Mack said with laugh.
One of her famous bills required bacon packages to have a window in the back to make sure packers couldn’t hide the fat.
“She was largely viewed as someone you did not want to cross, because she never forgot anything,” said Jeannie Darneille, Wojahn’s legislative aide in 1985 and current candidate for her former Senate seat, with a laugh.
Wojahn helped foster programs to help displaced homemakers across the state find work, and the model spread nationally, Darneille said.
Wojahn also was at the forefront of state public health policy to stop the spread of AIDS, Darneille said.
Wojahn is survived by her son, Mark. Her husband, Gilbert Sr., and son Gilbert Jr. preceded her in death.
Alexis Krell: 253-597-8268
alexis.krell@thenewstribune.com
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