Suzie Dicks, wife of longtime congressman, insists, "I'm still not political"

WASHINGTON — Suzie Dicks has had a front-row seat to history for 39 years.

She has seen virtually every presidential inauguration since Richard Nixon's and walked beneath the Capitol Dome to pay her respects when the bodies of Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Reagan and Ford lay in state.

She shook hands with Mikhail Gorbachev in the Kremlin as the Soviet Union was disintegrating, and was at the White House when Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat sealed their peace treaty with a handshake. She dined with President Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in the private quarters of the White House and formed a congressional wives study group with Tipper Gore, wife of former Vice President Al Gore.

"These kinds of things are part of our lives," said Dicks, wife of U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, the 16-term Democrat from Bremerton. "It's been an incredible opportunity to see history, to see the passing of history."

"Walking back in time"

For the past 12 years, Suzie Dicks has had an opportunity to share some of that history as the general secretary of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society. She has raised money, helped coordinate meetings of the society's executive committee and board of directors, served as a general fixer and "chief cook and bottle washer" for the staff.

"I'm the grandmother," she said in a recent interview in the society's cramped offices in a building that has a view of the Capitol Dome three blocks away.

Over the years, she has learned to appreciate the architecture, art and history of the Capitol.

She speaks glowingly of Italian artist Constantino Brumidi, whose murals adorn the corridors on the Senate side of the building and the Apotheosis in the rotunda. Brumidi, who fled from Rome to avoid political persecution, slipped from a scaffold and dangled 58 feet above the rotunda floor before being rescued. He died a few months later, his work in the Capitol uncompleted, Dicks said.

She also can tell you who Washington state's two statues in the Capitol portray — frontier missionaries Marcus Whitman and Mother Joseph — and where they are found: Statuary Hall and near the building's South door. Each state is allowed two statues, which originally were placed in Statuary Hall. But as the number of states grew, they placed too much weight on the hall's foundation and many were moved elsewhere.

"I haven't had a lot of history," she said. "But sometimes it feels like walking back in time."

The former Suzie Callison spent her earliest years in Seattle. Her grandfather was briefly mayor in the early 1900s. Then her father opened what was then the largest mint farm in the world in the Yakima Valley, and the family moved to Sunnyside.

She attended the University of Arizona, including spending a year in Spain, and when she graduated traveled in Europe, where for a time she worked as an au pair for a baron and baroness in a French château.

Returning to Seattle, she took a job with a travel agency. She met Norm at a singles club that he and five friends had opened, called The Never on Friday Club. Norm was in law school at the time.

When Norm called her a week later to ask her on a date, Suzie said she had no idea who he was or that he was well known for his days as a linebacker on a Rose Bowl-winning University of Washington football team.

"Everyone knew who he was," she said. "But I wasn't in Seattle when he played. We had our first date in June, got engaged in July and were married in August."

There was one other thing Suzie Dicks didn't know about her husband — he was about to begin a political career that has spanned 40 years.

"It was a complete surprise," she said. "I'm still not political."

Family made D.C. home

Shortly after their wedding, Norm took a job on the staff of the late Washington state Democratic Sen. Warren Magnuson. The couple moved to Washington, D.C., bought a house and started a family.

It was also a surprise when her husband decided in 1976 to run for the open 6th Congressional District House seat.

"The kids were 1 and 4," she said of sons David and Ryan, now an attorney and environmental consultant, respectively.

"We rented a place in Gorst. The kids and I did picnics and parades. Norm doorbelled, doorbelled and doorbelled."

Because they had already been living in Washington, D.C., Dicks said they knew their way around when her husband was elected.

"The learning curve was easy for us," she said. "I don't know how young congressional spouses do it today."

Suzie Dicks decided to make the family's home in D.C. so she could be closer to her husband. Over the years, she worked for Pan Am airlines, a Republican political consultant, the American Medical Association and the Grocery Manufacturers of America.

No conflicts of interest

But she likes her current job most of all and points out that working for the nonprofit, nonpartisan historical society ensures there are no conflicts of interest when it comes to her husband's job.

"Congressional spouses have to walk a thin line," she said. "We have to be very careful."

Norm Dicks agreed. "We tried to be careful," he said. "There is no conflict whatsoever."

Even so, it doesn't hurt that Suzie Dicks has a wide network of acquaintances after all these years.

"Her contacts are very important for the society," said Ron Sarasin, a former Republican congressman from Connecticut who is the organization's president. "We couldn't operate without her."

In addition to their home in Washington, D.C., the Dickses have a house on Hood Canal. They also have their first grandchild back in the state.

"It's a nice balance," Suzie Dicks said.

"We have both places, and inside of me I need both. Now, with a grandchild, it's amazing how often I get back there."