Family, friends gather to honor former Rep. Phyllis Gutiérrez Kenney at memorial

More than 300 people attended the June 28 memorial of former 46th District State Rep. Phyllis Gutiérrez Kenney at The Mountaineers Club in Seattle. Kenney died in Edmonds on May 13.

Before the service started, attendees gathered in small groups to chat, and many took turns examining a photo collage of Kenney that showed her family and career history.

Many of those attending were family members of Kenney and included her older sister Mary, her children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

“She was an amazing mother. There were eight of us at home, and she was a stay-at-home mom, and my dad was a barber,” said daughter Elizabeth Maltos, who is Kenney’s third-eldest child. “She sewed all our clothes, she did the cleaning and we went to church. She did everything for us growing up, even though we did not have a lot of money. She kept us clean, made us…the way we are today.”

State 46th District Sen. Javier Valdez, who emceed the event, recalled first meeting with Kenney in February 1991 while he was studying at the University of Washington. He said that Kenney was advocating for a bill that would allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition. Valdez had accompanied his friends to Olympia to support the cause.

“And there was this incredibly petite woman who was just as fiery as ever, and [she was like] ‘Okay, you’re next, you’re next, you’re testifying, you’re testifying’,” Valdez said. “But not all the students [showed up], so [Phyllis] looked at me and said, ‘Hey, Javier, would you like to testify? Well, the bill doesn’t really apply to me personally, but I’d be happy to testify in terms of why this bill is supposed to work. So Phyllis said, ‘OK, you’re up!’”

Kenney ran for Washington Secretary of State in 1996, and even though she lost, Valdez said that Kenney’s candidacy was significant as she was one of the few Latinos running for office at the time.

“The Latino community has come a long way,” Valdez said. “I think we have about 10 Latinos – four in the Senate, six in the House, the most we’ve ever had in Washington. But when she was in the Legislature and the House, it was just her.”

Kenney was appointed and later elected to represent the 46th District, an office she held from 1997 to 2013. While in the Legislature, Kenney chaired the Community Development and Housing Committee and served on multiple committees addressing education, labor and economic development, “always prioritizing the needs of working families and historically marginalized communities,” according to a Senate Resolution.

“It’s our job as a human to ensure that we do our best to open that door for the up and coming,” Valdez said. “But don’t forget once you pass through that door, you need to ensure that it stays open for those who are coming [in]. And she was a true example.”

Civil leader Wally Webster tells the story of how he first met Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney in the fields of Toppenish in 1969.Civic leader and Lynnwood resident Wally Webster said that he and Kenney had been friends since 1969 when they met in the fields in Toppenish in Yakima County. At that time, Webster was an outreach worker for Northwest Rural Opportunities, an organization that focused on improving farm workers’ rights and living conditions in southeastern Washington.

“On that summer day, [Phyllis] wanted me to go into the fields to help her work with the farm workers,” Webster said. “I got out of the car, started to go into the fields, there was a sign that said ‘No trespassing.’ She said, ‘Don’t worry about that sign.’”

Webster said that a half an hour later, the police came, arrested them and put them in a paddy wagon. While Webster was thinking about if they were going to survive the 105-degree heat inside the paddy wagon, he said that Kenney was “constantly talking about how we were going to help the people in the fields.”

“What I learned about Phyllis on that day was her self-determination, resilience and tenacity, the inner values that she had that propelled her to do the things that she was doing out in the community for other people,” Webster said. “I believe that Phillips planted the tree on whose shape she would never see. That was those transformed lives of people who would never, ever know her name.”

Edmonds Waterfront Center CEO Daniel Johnson said that he marveled at how Kenney knew everyone and was always able to help the Waterfront Center get speakers and supporters.

When Kenney was serving on the Waterfront Center board, she managed to get former Gov. Gary Locke to speak at the center’s annual fundraiser in 2023, effortlessly bypassing a gatekeeper on the phone, Johnson said.

Edmonds Waterfront Center CEO Daniel Johnson remembers the speakers whom Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney had brought to a few major fundraising events.“That’s how Phyllis rolled. Phyllis was a force,” Johnson said. He then shared a photo of Kenney speaking next to U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen at an event last March. “We know that he’s quite tall and he’s sitting, and Phyllis is standing so she could be eyeball to eyeball [with Larsen]. It was never a question about running the show.”

Johnson said that in recent weeks, when Kenney was at home in hospice, Waterfront Center staff and board members would check in with her and the family. “And when she was able, she wanted to sit and would weigh in on things like we were planning our gala, and she made it really clear she did not like that theme,” he said. “And so she also wanted to know – and I think this was like just one or two weeks prior to her passing – she had said, ‘I want to be clear on what meetings do I have next week?’ That was Phyllis until the very end.”

Waterfront Center Board Treasurer Karen Barnes said that she had initially opposed several of Kenney’s suggestions to dress up as magicians and perform magic for guests at last year’s black tie event.

“So fast forward to the event… and what do I find myself doing? I’ll tell you what: I’m a magician,” Barnes said. “It was a fabulous event. I had such a fun time, I would not change or trade that experience for one minute. If she could hear me right now, I would tell her how grateful I was for her friendship, how much I loved and adored her, and I would thank her for all the magic she brought to so many of our lives.”Despite Kenney’s role in politics, her youngest child Nathan Maltos and her niece Victoria Perez said that things were pretty “normal” in the household.

“My brothers and sisters are pretty close. We’re really tight,” he said. “We took care of each other growing up because our parents are busy working. All the holidays were at mom’s, and all the birthdays were at mom’s.”

Perez said that at one point she lived with Kenney and her family for two and a half years. After she left the household, she would return in the summer to help look after Kenney’s children.

“She taught me how to cook, how to make Mexican food,” Perez said. “She taught me to respect other people, to see the good in them regardless of their social status. That’s what I’m proud of.”

Nathan Maltos recalled that when he was 16, civil rights activist César Chávez stayed overnight at his family’s home. “I didn’t realize this, but he’s a vegan, so my mom had to make vegan food for the first time,” Maltos said.