Congratulations and best wishes to former Washington Governor and longtime Madison Park resident Albert D. Rosellini, who turns 100 years old on Thursday. Rosellini, the State's 15th governor, left office on January 11, 1965--over 45 years ago. He is the nation's oldest living former governor, according to Wikipedia.In case you missed it, Erik Lacitis wrote a nice piece in The Seattle Times on the Governor's birthday party last week with all of the other living former (and current) Washington governors in attendance. Rosellini, who served two terms in office before being defeated by Daniel Evans in 1964, remains active in both politics and business. He still gets around fairly well, though he apparently is no longer driving his white Cadillac (license plate: "GOVADR").
HistoryLink.org has an interesting retrospective on the Governor's life, available here. I dug up this photo of Gov. Rosellini with Elvis (and a ham) from the digital archives of the Museum of History and Industry. It's 1962, and Elvis was in town filming "Take Me to the Fair" at the Century 21 fairgrounds (now the Seattle Center). Supposedly the the ham was a gift to the Governor from Elvis, the source being Presley's Tennessee farm.
There's another picture in the archives showing Gov. Rosellini cutting the ribbon opening the Evergreen Point floating bridge (later renamed the Governor Albert D. Rosellini Bridge). I wonder what he thinks of the State's plans for building a new 520 bridge. More on the subject of 520 tomorrow.
Such an accomplished leader who has always been wise and witty deserves an big hooray for doing so much for the people throughout the years. I'm just one of his granddaughters and I can tell you that he is the greatest spirits on his 100th birthday. He's already had birthday celebrations to mark centurian status and he really, thoroughly enjoys the company. He loves people and people gravitate toward his because its so genuine. He is an amazing person that so many can never forget! ~Tara
ReplyDeleteThanks, Tara. My father-in-law, John Spellman, was one of those former governors at your grandfather's birthday party last week. Although they were political rivals, as you know, they have respect for each other and a friendship that goes back a long way. ADR did a lot for the State, and I'm glad he's still around to enjoy life here in the 'hood.
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