Archives West Finding Aid

Kathryn Boe-Duncan was born Kathryn Reule in Portland, Oregon, in 1930. She studied education at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. She met Jason Boe while in college, and they were married in 1952; they later had three children. After Jason Boe finished his studies, they settled in Reedsport, Oregon, where he first gained political office as a member of the city council. The family moved to Salem, Oregon, for most of the year beginning in 1964, when Jason Boe was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives. Boe-Duncan worked as his secretary during his six-year term. She continued to work as his secretary for much of the period from 1970 to 1980, when he served in the Oregon Senate. Jason Boe died in 1990. Boe-Duncan had a career as a musician, beginning in the 1970s, and she performed in the Coos Bay Bach Festival for over a decade. She worked for the Oregon Historical Society from 1986 to 1989 and for Portland State University from 1989 to 1994. In 1995, she married Robert Duncan, who was also an Oregon state senator, and changed her surname to Boe-Duncan.