Longtime legislator Mary Skinner 'always had class'

YAKIMA, Wash. — Longtime Yakima lawmaker Mary Skinner died Thursday morning, less than a year after her final legislative session and less than a month after her husband's death.

Skinner, who was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer in 2006, was 63. She died at home surrounded by family.

The first Latino legislator from the Yakima Valley, she leaves a legacy of child-safety policy and a reputation for optimism that colleagues say buoyed her even during the hardest parts of her up-and-down battle with the disease.

"Of all the people I've worked with, Mary always -- no matter the circumstances at home or in Olympia -- Mary always had class," said former state Rep. and Sen. Jim Clements, R-Selah.

During her 14 years representing the 14th District in the state House, Skinner, a Republican, gained a rep-utation as a champion for children.

"Thanks to Mary's passion, Washington's children are safer," U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a written statement.

Skinner's efforts led to the doubling of traffic fines in school zones. And her sponsorship of "Anton's Law," stemming from the 1996 traffic death of 4-year-old Anton Skeen on Interstate 82 north of Yakima, set a precedent leading to the passage of a national booster-seat law.

"There are many children who are alive and healthy today -- not to mention parents spared the lifelong grief and anguish from losing a child in an otherwise preventable death -- thanks to her efforts," Anton's father, Tom Skeen, wrote in an e-mail Thursday from Japan, where he now lives.

Her legislative achievements reflected her personality, said former state Sen. Alex Deccio.

"She was very thoughtful," he said. "There was a place for what she did, because very, very few people gave it that kind of thought. That was just her nature."

Skinner's heritage, having been born in California to migrant worker parents and raised in the Yakima Valley, gave her unique insight into parts of the community that weren't accessible to her colleagues, said Yakima School Board President Vickie Ybarra.

"Mary identified with a wide range of people in our community, especially people who were either disadvantaged or outside the system in some way," said Ybarra, a Democrat who in November lost to Yakima Republican Norm Johnson in the race to succeed Skinner.

As a girl, Skinner filled out forms for her parents, who didn't speak English well, said her sister, Marti Brunelle. Though Skinner and her two younger sisters were separated by only three years, Skinner assumed an almost parental role in some ways, Brunelle said. The family was close, and Skinner's parents, Joe and Jovita Rivera, instilled their work ethic into their daughters, Brunelle said.

"They loved us very much, and they were very goal-driven," she said. "They encouraged us to be very goal-driven."

Along with Deccio and Clements, Skinner provided the 14th District with un-common longevity. Deccio was already a fixture in the Senate when Clements and Skinner were elected to the House in 1994. They stayed together, referring to themselves as a team, until Deccio retired at the end of 2006.

Where Clements could be thought of as blunt and Deccio as slick, Skinner was universally liked in Olympia. It was a winning combination, Clements said.

"She put the fine finish on Alex and me," he said.

Their combined influence provided results in the capital budget, including fund-ing for the Capitol Theatre renovation, the creation of the Millennium Plaza and Yakima's continued downtown revitalization.

"Mary had such a profound impact on the Yakima community," Gov. Chris Gregoire said Thurs-day in a written statement.

Those results won them votes back home. Skinner first won election in 1994 with 62 percent of the vote. She was re-elected in 1996 with 59 percent -- a huge margin by most standards, but closer to defeat than she would come ever again. After her cancer diagnosis in 2006, she won another term with 66 percent of the vote.

The 2008 legislative session, however, proved to be Skinner's last. Though she missed only a handful of days during the session, they were vote-heavy days. She ended up missing more than 270 votes, or about 40 percent of those taken on the House floor.

Steadfast even then, she pledged to run again at the end of 2007 and was trying to find a way to stay in Olympia for chemotherapy treatments rather than flying home. She repeated her re-election plans in an April luncheon speech, during which her doctor told the crowd Skinner was healthy enough to serve.

A month later she surprised the local political scene with her retirement announcement. In a written statement, she insisted her health was not a deciding factor and that she wanted to spend more time with her husband, Hal.

Hal Skinner, a retired surgeon and former Army colonel, died Jan. 17. He was 88. The two were insep-arable during their 40 years of marriage, friends said.

"You can't hardly say anything about Mary without talking about Hal," Deccio said.

They were among Yakima's most outstanding couples, he said.

"I really can't think of anybody I admired more than the two of them," Deccio said.

Brunelle said the couple didn't want a tear-filled funeral. Instead there will be a "celebration of life" memorial some time this spring.

In a way, the last few weeks have been a celebra-tion of life, she said. Skinner's old Republican cohorts, including Clements and Deccio, visited several times. And Democrats did, too. Gutiérrez Kenney called regularly from Olympia and Lower Valley Democratic Party organizer Tomas Villanueva stopped by and said the rosary with her, even though Skinner was Presbyterian.

"She crossed barriers," Brunelle said. "They keep saying she reached across the aisle, but she did that in all aspects of her life."

Feeling the community's love and respect before she died meant a lot to Skinner, Brunelle said.

"To the very end, she was smiling."