Lenore Mae (Cleveland) Lambert
24 September 1925 - 25 January 1992
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Lenore was born September 24, 1925, the second daughter of Howard and Grace (Jones) Cleveland, in Crescent City, California. At an early age she moved with her family to the Seattle area where she was raised and educated. She graduated in 1942 from Cleveland High School in Seattle. She later attended and graduated from Edison Technical School in Seattle, the first woman to complete the course in Radio Communications. On March 27, 1944, she was married to M. Dow Lambert in Seattle, and moved to New York where Dow was working for Pan American Airlines. They returned to Seattle five months later so that their first son, Steven Meredith Lambert, could be born at home.
In 1945 Dow joined the Merchant Marines, on the Seattle to Alaska route, and Lenore lived in Seattle with Steve. In 1946 the young family moved to Yakima where Dow went to work as an announcer for a radio station. In 1948 their second son, Michael Edward Lambert, was born, followed two years later by the third son, McKinney Dow Lambert III. The family moved back to Seattle in 1952 so Dow could learn about television with KING TV, but they returned to Yakima in 1955, after a brief stop in Kennewick, and there they settled and raised the family.
In 1956, when young Dow entered the first grade, Lenore resumed her own education and interest in social issues. She became active in the American Red Cross Blood Center, the American Cancer Society, and the League of Women Voters. She was elected to the Yakima City Council in 1964 and served through 1973, the last year as Assistant Mayor. During these years she also became active with the Yakima Council of Churches, the Yakima County Council on Alcoholism, the Planning Association of Washington, the Washington State Council on Alcoholism, Yakima Mental Health and Retardation, Inc., Planned Parenthood of Yakima, Sundown M Ranch, the Girl Scouts of America, UGN, and the National Council on Alcoholism.
In 1973 she was elected the first woman County Commissioner in Yakima history, and served four years in that position. To her other activities she added the Citizen's Committee for Washington Courts, Central Washington University Organization Development Center, Yakima Republican Women's Club, and Council for Washington's Future, to name just a few.
After leaving elected office in 1977, Lenore opened and operated The Wine Cellar in Yakima. She was appointed to the first Washington State Lottery Commission and served from 1982-1985. She was a board member of Goodwill Industries, Yakima Valley Visitors and Convention Bureau, Greater Yakima Chamber of Commerce, and the North Front Street Improvement Association.
Lenore died on January 25, 1992, at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital. Her surviving family includes her husband, M. Dow Lambert of Yakima; three sons and two daughters-in-law, Steven Meredith Lambert and Gale Nelson of Port Angeles, Michael Edward Lambert of Vashon Island, and McKinney Dow Lambert III and Marlene Lambert of Seattle; her sister Helen Koenig of Woodinville, WA; one granddaughter, Joan Lambert Preppernau of Bellevue, WA; and one niece and three nephews.