Frances Sleep: Chair and Advisor, 1966 through 1968

 

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-person, and instead, it appears, sent a letter to Frances Sleep, presumably in her capacity as president of the Conference. In the letter, which Sleep seems to have read verbatim to the meeting attendees, the  governor shared his thoughts on the state of social welfare in Idaho. 

In addition to expressing his “wholehearted” support for “our governmental services in compassion” and his confidence that Governor-Elect Don Samuelson (R-Bonner County) would “be as sensitive in support of such programs” as he had been, Smylie also accused the Idaho Mental Health Association, a citizens advocacy group, of being ineffective. The Association, he wrote in the letter, was one of those “torch-carrying brigades” that “bore a flame” in its heart but lacked a “single scar” on its hands. Regrettably, the article in the Statesman offers no clues as to why a politician as savvy as Smylie – Idaho’s only four-term governor – would criticize an ostensibly well-meaning group of volunteers in public. (Idaho Statesman, November 18, 1966, p. 27) 

Fortunately, the Statesman’s coverage of the resolution that “would have severely condemned the Idaho Department of Public Assistance and its director, Bill Child” was more cogent than that of Smylie’s comments. According to an article in the paper’s November 19 edition, the Conference “members voted 27 to 19 against the resolution entered by Sam Day, Boise.” (Day was on the staff of the Idaho Observer, a progressive paper published in Boise.) If the resolution had passed, it would have held the Department and its policies of being responsible, “in large measure,” for the state’s failure “to progress (in social welfare).” The article adds that the resolution was “vetoed in a secret ballot after a tense afternoon business session.” (Idaho Statesman, November 19, 1966, p. 5) 

Despite the volatility of the 1966 meeting, some Conference members must have been surprised when they later learned that the 1967 annual meeting would not take place. The reason for the cancellation, according to an article in the October 20, 1967, edition of the Statesman, was “lack of interest.” The article also claimed that the Conference was “having problems staying in existence.” “We will meet early next year,” Conference president Ferrell Brown (and Judge Sleep’s colleague in the Bonner County Family Services project) is quoted as saying, “in an informal session to determine if the organization still has a purpose, if it is accomplishing any good.” A purpose seems to have been found because an annual meeting was held in 1968 and, in fact, through 1973. After that, however, regional newspapers yield nothing more about the Idaho Conference on Social Welfare. (Idaho Statesman, October 20, 1967, p. 17) 

Swearing in of Bonner County officials
Spokane Chronicle, January 10, 1967

Bonner County Official

On January 10, 1967, Frances Sleep was once again sworn in as Bonner County Probate Judge. In a sign of the times, four of the nine county officials who took oath that day were women. Joining Judge Sleep on the distaff side of the county staff were Norma Strecker, assessor; Billie King, treasurer; and Doris L. Kenney, auditor. Two weeks later, Judge Sleep met with another group of distinguished Idaho women when she attended the annual meeting of the Idaho Press Women in Boise. Besides networking with her colleagues, Sleep may have had an opportunity to catch up with fellow Sandpointer Ruby Samuelson. According to an article in the January 22 edition of the Idaho Statesman, Mrs. Samuelson, Idaho’s First Lady, hosted a business meeting with several Idaho presswomen to plan the annual conference of the National Press Women’s Association to be held in Sun Valley in June.  

Advisor

In early May, Judge Sleep was one of 15 Idahoans named to the Idaho Mental Health Advisory Council, a citizens group recently authorized by the the State Board of Health. Its purpose, according to an article in the May 5 edition of the Spokane Chronicle, was to “advise and make recommendations to the board concerning mental health matters in Idaho.” The Council, composed of “legislators, judges, housewives, educators and mental health workers,” included another Bonner County woman, Ruby Hart. Wife and mother of three, Mrs. Hart was active in several volunteer organizations, including the Parent-Teacher Association and the Idaho Mental Health Association. (Spokane Chronicle, May 5, 1967, p. 10) 

Commissioner

When Judge Sleep attended a meeting of the Idaho Commission on the Status of Women in Boise in early October, it was at her own expense. According to a United Press International (UPI) article in the October 8 edition of the Idaho Statesman, the state legislature had rejected the Commission’s “appeal for operating funds” the year before. Correspondent Norman Martin added insult to injury when he opined in his lead paragraph that the members of the Commission had taken the “legislative brush-off surprisingly light for women.” (Idaho Statesman, October 8, 1967, p. 21) 

When not editorializing, Martin reported on the Commission’s accomplishments. Two new laws had been passed, one that strengthened existing child support laws and another that lengthened “the time required to obtain a marriage license.” In addition, the minimum wage had been increased from $1 per hour to $1.15, and a code of “fair employment practices” for women had been enacted. Efforts, however, to secure state funding for kindergartens had not succeeded, and legislators also rejected “a minimum working hour scale for women.” (Idaho Statesman, October 8, 1967, p. 21) 

In another UPI article, correspondent Richard Charnock reported that the Commission had recently uncovered a conflict between two state laws, one that prohibited women from mixing drinks in bars and another that made it illegal to discriminate in employment on the basis of gender. In an article with the attention-grabbing headline of “Idaho’s Men Look Hopefully to Attorney General As Women Threaten to Invade Bartending Field” published in the October 26 edition of the Idaho Statesman, Charnock explained that the Idaho’s Attorney General, Allen G. Shepard, would soon declare which law would take precedence. (Idaho Statesman, November 7, 1967, p. 12) 

As an article in the November 7 edition of the Statesman reveals, Shepard determined that “a 1967 law prohibiting discrimination in employment on the basis of sex nullifies an earlier law which—with certain exceptions—permitted only men to serve as bartenders.” Following the issuance of Shepard’s opinion, Boise waitperson Doloris L. Martin (no apparent relation to Norman Martin) applied and was issued a bartender’s license, the first woman to receive one in Idaho. (Idaho Statesman, October 26, 1967, p. 39) 

 

Judge Sleep with Senator Frank Church and
Mrs. Clinton Henderson, Bonner County Democratic Party,
  Sandpoint News-Bulletin, March 21, 1968

Candidate

Judge Sleep kicked off the 1968 election year by hosting Senator Frank Church (D-ID) in her chambers on Saturday, March 16. According to an article in the March 21 edition of the News-Bulletin, the “senator spent most of Saturday afternoon talking with constituents on a person-to-person basis.” Both Church and Sleep were running for re-election, and voters returned them to office in November. Church would serve two additional terms in the Senate before losing to Republican Steve Symms in 1980. The 1968-1970 term would be Judge Sleep’s last. (Sandpoint News-Bulletin, March 21, 1968, p. 1)

Ginny Eiden, Boise, presents Judge Sleep with the
Theta Sigma Phi Headliner Award for her work in juvenile justice
and mental health, Idaho Statesman, May 10, 1968

Headliner

In May, Theta Sigma Phi, now the Association for Women in Communications, recognized Frances Sleep for “her local, county, state and national efforts on behalf of youth and the mentally retarded.” At a meeting in Moscow of the University of Idaho chapter, president Virginia Eiden presented Sleep with the Headliner Award, one of the society’s most prestigious awards. As one of its recipients, Judge Sleep joined an elite of Idaho women that included Dr. Florence Adler, the first woman to earn a doctorate degree from the University of Idaho, and journalist and lawmaker, Gladys Rae Swank. (Sandpoint News-Bulletin, May 9, 1968, p. 3) 

Advisor

In July, the Mental Health Advisory Council of the Idaho State Board of Health held public hearings in Sandpoint and Coeur d’Alene to gather information from citizens in the northern part of the state about mental health issues and services. Although no newspaper accounts of the hearings link her directly to the hearings, Judge Sleep was a member of the Council and almost certainly attended them. The primary topic of discussion during the hearing in Coeur d’Alene on July 11 was a proposal to close State Hospital North, one of Idaho’s two state mental hospitals. According to an article in the July 18 edition of the Sandpoint News-Bulletin, the “overwhelming testimony heard” at the meeting was to keep the Orofino hospital open until “more local mental health centers offering better services” are available. (Sandpoint News-Bulletin, July 18, 1968, p. 1) 

At the July 12 hearing in Sandpoint, the Council received comment about the lack of services and facilities for children and for alcoholics and addicts. According to an article in the July 13 edition of the Idaho Statesman, Mrs. George Sweeney of Boise, chair of the Idaho Mental Health Association, reported that there were nearly “14,000 emotionally disturbed children” who were “not receiving proper care or treatment.” Larry Burman, “clinical psychologist for the Ada County Mental Health Center,” added that “no comprehensive treatment or rehabilitation facility” existed in the state “for the alcoholic.” Burman explained that Idaho was “alone among three other states in the nation” that lacked “treatment facilities for persons suffering from alcoholism or from addition to medication and narcotics.” (Idaho Statesman, July 13, 1968, p. 4) 

An article in the October 3 edition of the Idaho Statesman reveals that Judge Sleep attended the October 1969 meeting of the Council in Idaho Falls. Children seem to have been the focus of this gathering. According to the article, the advisors not only approved Judge Sleep’s report advocating that the state “assume full responsibility for operating public kindergartens” but also expressed its support for establishing “regional detention homes for children.” Judge Sleep is quoted in the article as saying that “present facilities” are often “unsanitary, inadequate and have been the scene of suicides.” Sometime after this meeting, Sleep resigned from the Council. (Idaho Statesman, October 3, 1969, p. 25)

"Forgotten Woman" and Private Citizen, 1969 through 1971

One of Judge Sleep's re-election campaign
advertisements, Sandpoint News-Bulletin,
October 23, 1968