Archives West Finding Aid

Kathleen W. Gurnsey represented the North and East ends of Boise in the Idaho legislature for twenty-two years. First elected to the state House of Representatives in 1974, she was reelected ten more times before retiring in 1996. Mrs. Gurnsey made her mark in the legislature as co-chair of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, the House-Senate panel that serves as the state budget-writing committee. Appointed to JFAC in 1976, she became co-chair in 1980 and served in that capacity for sixteen years. "In her role as budget co-chairwoman, she brought a flair for numbers and an institutional memory that outlasted three governors and five speakers," wrote the Idaho Statesman in 1996. The newspaper called her "the most powerful woman in state government." House Speaker Mike Simpson commented, "She runs the state budget like it's her own checkbook." Her papers do, indeed, reflect the close scrutiny she applied to the details of state spending and to state government operations.

Kathleen W. Gurnsey was born on June 23, 1927, in Donnelly, Idaho, the third of six children born to Robert G. Wallace and Thelma Halferty Wallace. Known as "Kitty" since childhood, she grew up on a ranch in Donnelly and graduated from McCall-Donnelly High School, where she was valedictorian of her class. She also attended Kinman Business University in Spokane, Washington. In 1949, while working as a secretary for the U.S. Forest Service in McCall, she met Vern L. Gurnsey, a forester with the Boise Payette Lumber Company. They were married in 1950. The Gurnseys relocated to Boise, where Vern Gurnsey eventually became a vice president of Boise Cascade Corporation. They had three children, and Kitty Gurnsey was active on behalf of a number of civic and charitable causes, including the PTA, Red Cross, YMCA, Fundsy, and St. Luke's Hospital Auxiliary. In 1970 she was one of the Idaho Statesman's Outstanding Citizens. She was also an elder of the Presbyterian Church and an avid golfer and bridge player. While raising her family, Mrs. Gurnsey took college classes, graduating (after a twenty-year effort) from Boise State University with a degree in business administration in 1976.

Kitty Gurnsey made her first run for the state House of Representatives in 1974, defeating an incumbent legislator for the Republican nomination from her district. The primary election campaign was decided more by the candidates' get-out-the-vote efforts than by issues or ideology, though Mrs. Gurnsey did make an argument on behalf of women candidates. "Practically all legislation is connected to the family...and I believe more women should seek public office and participate in the governmental process," she said in the Statesman. When she was elected in November, she became just one of nine female legislators in Idaho. She followed in the footsteps of her grandfathers, Robert Halferty and Frank Wallace, both of whom served in the legislature before her.

During her twenty-two years in the state house, Kitty Gurnsey established a reputation as an independent legislator. Most often labeled a moderate by political commentators, she openly identified with JFAC's "Republicrat" coalition, moderate Republicans and Democrats who resisted severe budget cuts in the early 1980s. She opposed Idaho's rescission of the Equal Rights Amendment, sponsored the legislation that established a state-supported kindergarten program in 1976, opposed the One-percent initiative in 1978, championed public funding of the state women's commission, and opposed the antiabortion bill (HB 625) of 1990. She faced primary challenges from an outspoken conservative in 1982 and a right-to-life activist in 1990, and was attacked as a "Democrat in Republican clothing" by a conservative Republican state senator in 1994. Yet she also faced vigorous Democratic opposition in her reelection efforts, particularly toward the close of her legislative career. She lost her traditional support from the Idaho Education Association in the late 1980s because of her votes for leaner education appropriations than the association favored. The IEA backed strong Democratic challengers in the 1988 and 1990 elections, and in the 1990 race Mrs. Gurnsey held on to her seat by only 356 votes. The political makeup of her district was indeed becoming a problem for her, for by the 1980s it had become the most Democratic district in Boise. The district's Senate seat went Democratic in 1976, and the other House seat went to the Democrats in 1982. So while under fire from some Republicans for not being conservative enough, she was criticized by Democrats in the general elections for being too tight with the budget, particularly with education spending. She explained her dilemma in a 1983 interview in the Idaho Statesman. While she characterized herself as a strong supporter of public education, she maintained that the people "have to realize I am chairman of the Appropriations Committee and I am dedicated to balancing the budget." In 1992 she told the newspaper that her votes in JFAC had indeed become more conservative, largely because of her long legislative experience and an increasing willingness to challenge state agency funding requests. During her last campaign in 1994, the Statesman, in an editorial endorsing her reelection, described her as a "fiscal conservative but a strong supporter of education." She won reelection that last time with fifty-one percent of the vote. In 1996, without Mrs. Gurnsey on the ballot, the seat finally fell to a Democrat.

Gurnsey was an active member of the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National Order of Women Legislators, and the Pacific Northwest Legislative Leadership Forum. In 1982 she was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Defense to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS) and served a three-year term. Service on that committee took her to military posts and conferences across the country. In 1995, Kitty Gurnsey received the Legislator of the Year award from the National Republican Legislators Association, one of only twelve legislators in the nation so honored that year. She received the Distinguished Community Service award from the Boise Area Chamber of Commerce in 1996, an honorary membership from the Idaho Public Employees Association in 1995, the Distinguished Alumni award from Boise State University in 1991, and BSU's Silver Medallion in 1996. She served as a trustee of the BSU Foundation since 1978.

Kitty Gurnsey died on June 1, 2015.

Sources: Idaho Political Almanac, by Randy Stapilus (various editions)

Biographical material within the collection, including Idaho Statesman clippings dated: May 17, 1970 (Box 1, folder 1), June 1, 1974 (Box 1, folder 32), May 17, 1976 (Box 1, folder 32), February 22, 1983 (Box 1, folder 33), May 21, 1992 (Box 1, folder 34), March 8, 1996 (Box l, folder 1)