Louise Shadduck

Shortly after graduating high school she was hired as a writer for the Spokesman-Review,[5] and afterwards the Coeur d'Alene Press.[7] Shadduck was sent to report on the 1944 Republican National Convention[1] by the Coeur d'Alene Press.[5] At the end of World War II, she founded the Kootenai County Young Republicans in North Idaho. Gaining recognition in that organization, she rejected attempts by the Republican Party to recruit her, instead sticking her to journalism. However, when the Press sent her to Washington, D.C. as an intern for Idaho Senator Henry Dworshak's office, she both wrote stories for the paper and also helped the senator. She also joined Robert Taft's inner circle, after being invited after attending a Young Republicans convention in Milwaukee.[5]

Returning to Boise, Idaho, she accepted a job from the Governor Charles A. Robbins[5] as his publicity assistant. She was quickly promoted to administrative assistant.

She was the first female administrative assistant to an Idaho governor, serving Governor Robins from 1946 until 1950.[8] She left writing for The Press in 1948 but continued to sell freelance stories. The Press published these stories under her "This and That" column.[5] She continued in that office with his successor Leonard B. Jordan, until 1952 when U.S. Senator Henry Dworshak finally convinced her to come to Washington and work for him. In 1952, Shadduck spoke for Eisenhower's and his "I Like Ike" campaign, sharing a head table with the future president.[5] She spoke in support of his peace time nuclear policy in a nationally televised speech at the Republican National Convention.

In 1956[5] she made a run for United States Congress, against Democrat Gracie Pfost for the First District Congressional seat from Idaho. It was the first time in United States history where both major parties chose female candidates in a congressional race.[8] During this time she also helped Eisenhower in his re-election campaign for US president.[5] She spoke at the Cow Palace in San Francisco in 1956, addressing the GOP National Convention.[5]

In 1958, she was the first woman in the United States to be a state secretary of commerce and development, when Idaho appointed her to the position[1] Given five employees and a budget of $140,000,[5] soon after losing 45/55 to Pfost, Shadduck was asked by Idaho's Governor Bob Smylie to take over the state's struggling Department of Commerce and Development, giving her a blank slate to do it her way.[5] Under Governor Smylie, she became the first female head of a department when she created and the ran the organization that later became the Department of Commerce and Economic Development.[8] With an office in the State House attic, Shadduck began a strategy of promotion which included back country horseback and fishing trips with business leaders from other states.[5] She brought major Girl Scout and Boy Scout events to the state, implemented development of Farragut State Park and brought other national conventions to Idaho. Her ten-year tenure coincides with Idaho's per capita income rising to its highest point in the century.[5]

Following the defeat of Governor Smylie she became administrative assistant to Idaho's Congressman Orval H. Hansen. After leaving his office she lobbied for Idaho's forest industries and rewrote the timber tax laws to make it profitable for renewable logging on managed private property. Reacting to the arrival of a white supremacist group in northern Idaho, she lobbied effectively for an amendment to malicious harassment laws. That amendment allowed for civil damages to be awarded in cases of malicious harassment and was instrumental in dismantling the supremacist compound.[9] In 1979 she accompanied Senator Frank Church and others on a major trade delegation to China,[5] where she spoke about and promoted cooperation in forestry between the two nations.[9]

Shadduck continued to write articles for various Idaho newspapers and publications.[10] In 1966 she was president of Idaho Press Women.[1][6] From 1971 to 1973 she was president of the National Federation of Press Women[10][1] and spoke in Israel at the World Association of Women Journalists in a program which also included Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.[10]

In May 2008, Idaho Lieutenant Governor Jim Risch named her his North Idaho campaign for his campaign to replace Senator Larry Craig.[1]

Shadduck wrote five books, Idaho Sheep King, Doctors with Buggies, Snowshoes and Planes, At the Edge of the Ice, Rodeo Idaho, and Idaho Rodeo! Her final book, about Victor Dessert and titled The House that Victor Built, was published posthumously[1] and had a publisher's proof version brought to her deathbed in 2008.

An amateur artist,[6] she promoted the arts throughout her life. Shadduck had a reputation for never forgetting a name or a person's story. She enjoyed mentoring young people beginning their studies or careers, and her personal friendships are cited as a source of her political influence in Idaho's history. She remained active with full-time speaking engagements until within several months of her death at the age of 92.