Frances Sleep: From Private Life to Public Service, Early Life through 1957

 

Idaho Probate Judges, 1957, McCall. Judge Sleep is seated, second from the left.
Idaho Statesman, June 2, 1957

About Frances Sleep

Early Life
Olga Frances Hamilton was born on August 22, 1903, in Newport, Washington, to Samuel E. Hamilton and Olga Giles Hamilton. Five years later, Frances' mother passed away, and sometime between 1908 and 1910, she was placed in the home of her maternal grandparents, John H. and Emma Giles. The Giles lived in Sandpoint.

Little is known of Frances' childhood and youth, but her talents as a writer seem to have emerged early, as an article in the May 26, 1921, edition of the Spokane Chronicle reveals. “Miss Olga Hamilton,” the article reports, won first prize in an essay contest sponsored by the Pend Oreille Timber Protective Association. (Spokane Chronicle, May 26, 1921, p. 13)

Wife and Mother
On March 24, 1923, soon after graduating from Sandpoint High School in 1922, Olga Hamilton married William F. Sleep in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Seven years later, according to the 1930 U.S. Census, the Sleeps were parents of two sons, Richard, age 6; and Robert, age 4. The Census also reports that the family lived on Euclid Avenue in Sandpoint and that William had identified his occupation as “retail merchant” in the refrigeration and radio industry. 

Community Volunteer
When and why Olga became Frances is not known, but accounts of her involvement with the Bonner County Recreation Council in the 1930s refer to her as Frances Sleep. Considering that the purpose of the Recreational Council was to “teach community leaders how to conduct games and entertainments," it makes perfect sense that the organization would interest Sleep, as a mother, as a concerned citizen, and as a writer. In addition to serving as an officer of the Council, she also wrote and directed several one-act plays that were staged to raise funds for such community service efforts as the “undernourished children’s milk fund.” During the early 1940s, Sleep also volunteered with the Camp Fire Girls organization. (Sandpoint Daily Bulletin, March 13, 1933, p. 1)

Reporter-Photographer-Poet
In October 1948, Sleep joined the staff of the Sandpoint News-Bulletin, where according to an article in the October 21, 1948, edition of the paper, she "engaged largely in reporting local news of Sandpoint.” Her byline, "Frances Sleep," appeared in the paper four months later at the top of an article about the new hot lunch program being offered in Sandpoint’s public schools; Sleep provided both copy and photos, and the story filled seven of the eight columns on the first page of the paper’s “Second Section.” (Sandpoint News-Bulletin, October 21, 1948, p. 1)

"Frances Sleep" also wrote verse, as the June 28, 1951, edition of the News-Bulletin reveals. Titled “June Weddings,” the poem reads:

The society page of the paper
Was studded with beautiful brides.
Some stood before lighted altars
Others posed with their grooms at their sides.
Their faces were fresh and hopeful
Their eyes bright and shining with love.
They faced an unknowable future
With faith in God’s goodness above.
 
On the opposite page was the picture
Of a couple who had traversed Life’s way.
They had seen 50 years pass by them
Since their own June wedding day.
Their heads were now crowned with silver.
Their faces were marked by Time’s hand,
But their eyes still glow for they now know 
That together Life is grand!
 

Photograph that illustrated Sleep’s feature about the final stages of the construction 
of Albeni Falls Dam on Lake Pend Oreille. Joining Sleep in the photo are engineers 
James Grafton (left), Sherman Green, and Col. John P. Buehler, 
Sandpoint News-Bulletin, March 13, 1952

Press Woman
“June Weddings” may have earned Sleep a prize from the Idaho Press Women, a chapter of the National Federation of Press Women, in 1952. According to an article in the March 12 edition of the Spokane Chronicle, Sleep earned first place in the newspaper poetry division of the group’s annual writing contest. A year later, the Idaho Press Women recognized Sleep again. In its March 19, 1953, edition, the News-Bulletin reports that “Frances Sleep, News-Bulletin staff reporter” had “received first for a news story, first for a feature story, first for publicity and promotion and third for an interview.” In addition to her work on the News-Bulletin, Sleep also wrote for the Spokesman-Review, a daily newspaper published in nearby Spokane. Among the copy that Sleep provided for the Spokesman was an article about the “Howdy Stranger” committee, Sandpoint’s newly-formed hospitality committee. (Sandpoint News-Bulletin, March 19, 1953, p. 1)

Widow
Frances’ husband William died unexpectedly on November 6, 1955; he was only 57-years-old. In addition to Frances, sons Richard and Robert, as well as four grandchildren, survived him. William Sleep is buried in Sandpoint’s Pinecrest Memorial Park. Three years earlier, Frances' had lost her maternal grandfather, John Giles, and she would lose her father in 1962. Grandmother Emma had died in 1936.  

Probate Judge
The commissioners of Bonner County appointed Frances Sleep Probate Judge on January 14, 1957, the same day the duly-elected official, Billye Bond, resigned to accept a position on the staff of Senator Frank Church, D-ID. At this time in Idaho, the position of probate judge was partisan, and candidates were not required to be lawyers. Throughout her many terms as Bonner County Probate Judge, Sleep ran on the Democratic ticket.

Six weeks later, Judge Sleep traveled to Provo, Utah, where she attended the Intermountain Juvenile Court Institute and was, according to an article in the March 14 edition of the News-Bulletin, the only “woman probate judge” present. In June, Sleep went to McCall to meet with her fellow Idaho probate judges. She was not, as in Provo, the only “woman probate judge” present, but she was one of only three women who then served as probate judge in Idaho. The other women judges were Maxine Whitney of Kootenai County and Ruth B. Schnurle of Fremont County. During the meeting, Judge Sleep was selected to chair the group's publicity committee. 

At the time of Sleep's appointment, the Idaho Constitution and the state’s Youth Rehabilitation Act of 1955 prescribed the jurisdiction of the state's probate courts. Under the Constitution, probate courts heard “all matters of probate, settlement of estates of deceased persons and appointment of guardians." They also handled "civil cases where the debt or damage claimed did not exceed $500” and “had concurrent jurisdiction with justices of the peace in criminal cases.” Under the Youth Rehabilitation Act, “all juvenile offenses” were “referred to probate court regardless of the seriousness of the charges,” according to an article in the July 20, 1955, edition of the Idaho Statesman. (Byron J. Johnson, “Constitutional Convention: The First State Courts,” Justice for the Times, p. 35; Idaho Statesman, July 20, 1955, p. 5)

At the end of July, Judge Sleep arranged for representatives from several Bonner County child and youth organizations to attend a program in Sandpoint about the Idaho Industrial Training School in St. Anthony. Since its original inception in the early 1900s as a reformatory for juvenile offenders, the Idaho Industrial Training School had been, by the late 1950s, re-imagined as a school. According to an article in the August 1 edition of the News-Bulletin, the residents of the facility, who were both boys and girls, were being “taught how to conform and to cope with their behavior and emotional problems.” (Sandpoint News-Bulletin, August 1, 1957, p. 5)

In October, Sleep hosted Senator Frank Church during his visit to Bonner County in late October. Senator Church, according to an article in the October 24 edition of the News-Bulletin, spoke to “more than 100 fellow Democrats” at a dinner meeting held in Sandpoint's Community Hall. The article adds that Senator Church urged those present to “support a growing awareness of the great potentialities of Idaho.”” Church also discussed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which he had helped navigate through the Senate, and foreshadowed the stance he would later take on U.S. military involvement in East Asia. “We need to conquer war,” he said, “and that can only be done by waging peace.” (Sandpoint News-Bulletin, October 24, 1957, p. 5)



 





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Frances Sleep: Chair and Advisor, 1966 through 1968

Image
  Sandpoint News-Bulletin , November 10, 1966 About Frances Sleep Meeting Chair In mid-November 1966, just days after being re-elected Bonner County’s Probate Judge in the general election, Judge Sleep presided over the annual meeting of the Idaho Conference of Social Welfare in Boise. If accounts of the proceedings in the Idaho Statesman are accurate, Conference President Sleep oversaw a rancorous meeting. First, Idaho Governor Robert E. Smylie insulted a group of Idaho housewives, and then the conferees nearly censured the Idaho Department of Public Assistance and its director.   An account of the Smiley insult incident is in an article in the November 18 edition of the Idaho Statesman . Unfortunately, it so confusing that an exact sequence of events is difficult to determine. The Idaho Conference on Social Welfare, it seems, had invited the governor to speak at its annual meeting – something he had done in the past. In 1966, however, Smylie was unable to appear in-pers...
Read more

Frances Sleep: President-Developer-Commissioner, 1961

Image
Idaho Statesman , January 1961 About Frances Sleep     President, Idaho Press Women According to an article in the Saturday, January 21, 1961, edition of the Idaho Statesman , Judge Sleep had recently arrived in Boise to preside as president at the annual meeting and luncheon of the Idaho Press Women . Before the women got down to business, however, they enjoyed a luncheon at which Betty Penson, the “Statesman’s woman’s editor,” and former Idaho governor C.A. Bottolfsen, spoke. Penson discussed her experiences on a recent trip to Africa, and Bottolfsen – with Idaho’s territorial centennial only two years away – challenged those present to do more to publicize Idaho’s “rich treasury of history.”” ( Idaho Statesman , January 23, 1961, p. 9) Flag-raising ceremony, Camp Pioneer, Priest Lake, July 1961 Idaho Youth Conservation Corps “Developer” In mid-February, a n article in the February 12 edition of the  Idaho Statesman  reports that , a bill "setting up a pilot ...
Read more

My Company Tis of Thee

Image
Update :  Court OK's Hudson's Bay selling trademarks, like iconic stripes, to Canadian Tire , CBC , June 3, 2025 While the Thirteen American Colonies gained their independence from Great Britain in 1776, another English colony in North America could not claim the same until 1846. Located in the upper northwestern corner of North America, the British originally called the colony the Columbia District , and later, the Columbia Department. When the geopolitical ambitions of the young United States stirred at the turn of the 19 th century, its citizens not only claimed the colony as its own but also renamed it. Nineteenth century Americans called the region, the Oregon Country . Relying on diplomacy, it took the United States and Great Britain nearly 40 years to resolve their conflicting claims on the territory. The first formal agreement between the two nations came in 1818 when they agreed to occupy the region jointly. At that time, however, neither the U.S. nor Great Britain wa...
Read more