Carolyn Dimmick Final PDF.indd - Washington Secretary of State

Dimmick: Sure. I had all the preliminary hearings.
Hughes: Did those experiences resonate with you?
Dimmick: Yes, in fact the judge was Judge William Hoar. And when I would go home at
night on a Thursday calendar, Cy would say, “Uh-oh, sex day in Judge Dirty Names court.”
Hughes: Is that what it was like?
Dimmick: Yes, it was just terrible. We’d come home drained. It was bad.
Hughes: You did bring your work home, didn’t you?
Dimmick: Oh for sure.
Hughes: So what was it like trying to be a mom during that era?
Dimmick: Well, you’re very protective. … Oh gosh, I took my kids to jail so they could
understand what it was like. When we took them into the Kirkland Jail, of course the cops
were so nice to my son. I took my daughter up to Juvenile Court, and put her up there for
a while. She was wanting to go back and make cookies for the girls. It didn’t sink in that
they might some day be in one of those places!
Hughes: I guess your role-modeling did pay off. Instead of wanting to be delinquents your
kids wanted to give the delinquents s’mores.
… So you didn’t experience any notable discrimination in that office as a young woman?
Dimmick: No, I didn’t.
Hughes: One article I read said it was Cy who suggested that you apply for a judicial post, a
district court job, in 1965.
Dimmick: Could be. I was at home
with my daughter Dana.
Hughes: In private practice?
Dimmick: I was at home and
I was doing private practice
out of my husband’s law office
downtown. And I was also taking
appointments from the Superior
Carolyn and her husband Cyrus “Cy” Dimmick in the early 1960s
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Court for guardian ad litem, up
in the juvenile court. That kind of