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Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Janet Askren Brown 
April 16, 1987 
Cassette 1, Side 2 
 
 
Deborah Gates  00:04 
So you were telling me about the wedding in St. Louis? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  00:10 
Well, the organist's daughter was the flower girl. She was all dressed up with the little curls, and 
was real cute and... Everybody-- he had been going to this church for a year, so everybody knew 
him and liked him, and so he had all his friends there. So we have plenty of friends in that. It was 
real nice. Just... I guess, two years ago, this organist came out from Florida to visit us, and I 
hadn't seen her since the wedding. It was real fun to see her, because when I had my baby, why, 
she had to stay at her house for two weeks. In those days, you weren't supposed to walk upstairs 
after you had a baby. You were supposed to stay in the hospital for, I think it was 10 days or two 
weeks, and then come home and not go upstairs for another couple of weeks, they were real 
careful of women, so... And I had never given a baby a bath at all. And so she showed me how to 
do it. I sure was afraid. Didn't know anything about little kids much at all. 
 
Deborah Gates  01:44 
Was she older than you, this woman? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  01:51 
Yeah, but not too much. Her little girl was only, I guess, three or four years old, but she was 
always such a motherly type and a large woman physically. She seemed older to me, but I wasn't 
too young either. I was 20. I was almost 26 when I got married, but then not having children 
around the house always been with grown-ups most all my life, so I didn't know much about 
babies at all. Really handled the baby gingerly at first. When I first got her home, she started 
crying about two o'clock in the morning. I was ready to send her back. I remember that real well.  
 
Deborah Gates  03:00 
Did your husband give you much help with her? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  03:06 
No, not really. He was too busy studying.  
 
Deborah Gates  03:08 
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He was still in medical school at the time? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  03:12 
Yeah, but he was through-- well, I don't know how it happened. I think he graduated in August, 
and we left to come home in... Can't be home. I don't know how it worked out. In-- he had to go 
into the service. Anyway, do something for the army to get the pay for the last year of schooling 
if they promised they'd go into the army, later, they would get some of their way paid through 
school, and we needed the money so then he did that, and then later on, did go into the service 
when they called him. And my second baby was born when he got his call to go back into the 
service. So he went within-- when the baby was three months old to the service. 
 
Deborah Gates  04:29 
So the second baby was three months old. And you were back in Seattle by this time? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  04:34 
We brought the first baby home when she was... I think she was nine weeks old, but it was easy 
to travel on a train when she was that young, and I was nursing her and everything, so. We had 
got [?room?] [inaudible] and it worked out real good, because she slept most of the way with the 
motion of the train [?and liked it?]. So then we stayed at Mom's house for a while, because-- 
until we could get settled, and then we got our own house later. 
 
Deborah Gates  05:17 
I want to backtrack a little bit. Did you work in the early years of your marriage?  
 
Janet Askren Brown  05:22 
Yes. I worked at the Globe-Democrat, which is a newspaper, in a secretary pool, for about three 
months, and then it was his vacation, so I asked if I could have a week's vacation. I did kind of a 
mean thing to them, I went out and applied for a job in a war plant because I wasn't getting near 
enough paid for us to eat, or pay for our rent, or anything. And so I got a good job in the war 
plant with lot more money. We were able to pay the rent and have enough to get to church 
without walking. Was a long way-- well, wasn't really a long way, but a couple of miles or 
something, and we wanted to go on the bus. You know, we needed that. Another job. 
 
Deborah Gates  06:29 
When you worked in the war plant, did that give you a good feeling? Is it your part of the war 
effort?  
 
Janet Askren Brown  06:35 
I think everybody was quite into helping for the war in those days, was a patriotic feeling. 
 
Deborah Gates  06:43 
And then, how long did you work for them? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  06:48 
I guess-- must have been about a year, because I think it was from April till the next April, 
because I stopped when I was five months pregnant, and then the lady found out I was going to 
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be home all the time in the rented apartment, which was the second floor of their house, why, she 
told us we'd have to get out. So we went to this other house, and they weren't too keen to hear we 
were going to have a baby too, but we said we'd only be there about a month after the baby was 
born, and so we asked if we could stay. And she said, Okay. 
 
Deborah Gates  07:50 
Gee, you must not have shown very much when you were that... 
 
Janet Askren Brown  07:53 
No, I quit before I did too much, because I was walking up and down the aisles with all these 
men, and I didn't want to have them laughing at me. We had uniforms anyway, but I didn't want 
men laughing at me for being pregnant. I didn't stay after five months. 
 
Deborah Gates  08:19 
Did you and your husband discuss your finances, or how did you-- how was the family run? Was 
he the boss? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  08:32 
Yeah, although I was-- when we first got married, he was picking up pins in a bowling alley, and 
studying, and going to school. So I hardly ever saw him, except supper time, and I was very 
unhappy because I didn't know anybody, and I'd been an only child, and I sure missed my mom 
and dad. I remember going to Thanksgiving service at the church, and I just cried, I was so 
homesick. The holidays are hard when you're away from home, and I... So I told him I didn't 
want him working night and day. It was too much for him, and me, and everything, so I-- that's 
why I wanted to get this other job so he wouldn't have to work. And so when I got the other job, 
he didn't have to do the bowling, because that would go till one o'clock in the morning or 
something. It was a real-- you know, it's pretty hard on his health, too, to work those  long hours. 
So I got this other job, and we were able to pay for the rent, and have enough to eat, and [?so 
hard?]. But Mother would make me clothes if I couldn't buy any clothes or anything. She had to 
make them and send them to me in the mail, things like that, because we couldn't afford anything 
extra. Till he could get out of school. But then when the army helped him, at the last year, then 
we were just better. 
 
Deborah Gates  10:38 
And then you stopped working after you had your first baby? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  10:47 
Yeah. Well, when, let's see, when Lynne was seven months old. I got pregnant with the other one 
and had him 16 months apart. So I was in the diapers, bottles, and everything for as long as my 
husband was around. I was real busy with the kids. Couldn't help it.  
 
Deborah Gates  11:25 
Was he able to help you? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  11:27 
No, he was in the army. He had gone to the army when the baby was three months old.  
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Deborah Gates  11:35 
Where was he stationed?  
 
Janet Askren Brown  11:37 
Texas.  
 
Deborah Gates  11:39 
Oh, and you stayed in St. Louis-- 
 
Janet Askren Brown  11:41 
--no, stayed in Seattle-- 
 
Deborah Gates  11:42 
--in Seattle, but then you had your mother was here, did she?  
 
Janet Askren Brown  11:48 
She was about five blocks away from me, so she would babysit when I went to night school and 
things like that. 
 
Deborah Gates  11:57 
What were you going to night school for? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  11:59 
Well, I took up speed writing once, and shorthand, I think. Probably typing, I'm not sure about 
that. And then I took a cooking course. 
 
Deborah Gates  12:21 
Were you taking this speed writing and typing so to help you get a better job when you went 
back to work? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  12:29 
I had thought that maybe I would go into a in-office and work, but I tried it out for, I don't know, 
three months or so in a lawyer's off-- I think it was a lawyer's office, and I just am not very well 
coordinated, and I didn't do too well. So, I gave up on that idea and decided to go back to the-- to 
renew my teaching certificate instead and go that way, and... So when the children-- let's see, 
Lynne was first grade, and Beryl Jo was still preschooler because her-- she had a November 
birthday, so she had to enter when she was almost six, and I went back to school then to Seattle 
Pacific, and only went from September till October 28 I think. And then I got hired and started 
writing kindergarten without really-- I was going-- I had signed up to go the whole quarter, and 
thought I'd have to go a year to renew the certificate, but they needed somebody in Shoreline 
School District, and the people recommended me. I got the job and took all the kids that they 
didn't want, all the kids in one school, in the Ronald School, that the teacher couldn't do to make 
the class the right size, they gave over to me. And... I think two teachers, because-- I'm not sure, 
but I had to share the room and take the kids that they couldn't take so that everybody had a 
class, maybe around 23, 25 people for three sessions in one room. And then I would go out and 
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catch the bus on Aurora 175th and go down to Richmond Beach on the bus. And one time was 
snowing, I missed the bus, and the principal had to take me down to the other school because I-- 
somehow our bus didn't come or something. I had to get down there for one o'clock for the other 
class, and so I-- had to take me down. And then I go in the carpool.  
 
Deborah Gates  16:02 
So you didn't have your own car?  
 
Janet Askren Brown  16:05 
Oh no. 
 
Deborah Gates  16:08 
Now, where was your husband at this time? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  16:13 
He had already run off with another woman, a nurse in the Seattle General Hospital that he met. 
She-- he had writ me to get ready and come down and live in Texas with him. We were all ready 
to go when he sent me a telegram and said, Don't come. I can't find any place for you to live. But 
what he really meant was that this nurse had gone down there and gotten in trouble with him, and 
he didn't want me to come, so... It was not easy. 
 
Deborah Gates  17:05 
So that's when you went back and you got your teaching certificate. 
 
Janet Askren Brown  17:09 
No, he-- after he went with her, I had never given him a divorce, but he came back-- after he's 
out of the army, he came back. He lived at Fort Lewis, and he'd come home every other 
weekend. And I guess on the other weekends, he was spending it with her, but I didn't know it. 
But anyway, so then I... I don't know. Anyway, my dad left, and then he decided he'd leave too, 
if my dad would, why, he could too. So he told me-- three months-- no, my dad left on 
Valentine's Day and he left on Easter. It was all in the same year. It was really bad for both of us. 
Anyway, he gave me $50 a month to raise the kids on until I went to work, when I got my job 
and he quit. He would send us Christmas money, but that was it-- or maybe birthdays too.  
 
Deborah Gates  18:49 
Did you live with your mother then?  
 
Janet Askren Brown  18:50 
No, I was in this $35 a month apart-- well, house. It was real nice house, and we had a lovely 
swing on the porch, and we had a sandbox out in the backyard, and it was on the corner right 
behind the college there. 
 
Deborah Gates  19:12 
Behind SPU. 
 
Janet Askren Brown  19:13 
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Mm-hmm. And kids had it real nice, and they went to North Queen Anne grade school, and it 
was a real good school. They go on fine. And then-- and I went on the carpool back and forth, 
and had a babysitter take care of them that was just up the alley a block, and she would take care 
of them after school, so it worked out good, and I had my vacations free with teaching. So that 
worked out quite well. 
 
Deborah Gates  19:50 
Did you like teaching?  
 
Janet Askren Brown  19:53 
Yeah. Kindergarten is a real nice age. I liked it fine. I've never been good at discipline, but I did 
enjoy it.  
 
Deborah Gates  20:03 
And you always taught kindergarten? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  20:05 
Mm-hmm. Well later on, they gave me a combination, first and kindergarten. I didn't do so well 
on that, and then I changed schools at the end, and I had a real difficult time and Principal didn't 
help me. And so, I got-- developed high blood pressure and almost had a nervous breakdown. So 
I quit early, but I still had put in 20 years of teaching.  
 
Deborah Gates  20:43 
Oh, so this happened at the end of your teaching career. So you retired early. 
 
Janet Askren Brown  20:47 
Yeah, when I was 55. 
 
Deborah Gates  20:49 
So you've been teaching since you were 35? 
 
Deborah Gates  20:52 
And in these years, while you were raising your daughters, did you have a lot of women friends? 
Or did you not-- just not have the time? You still have [inaudible] at church? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  20:52 
Yeah, I guess. 
 
Janet Askren Brown  21:11 
I had all my church friends. Yeah, I guess mostly just my church friends. Well, of course, my-- 
we went in the carpool and we had teachers from, I think we stopped at four different schools, so 
I got quite well acquainted with them. We had lots of fun in our carpool. 
 
Deborah Gates  21:39 
You also mentioned that you had studied cooking at night, was this so you could be a better cook 
or be your own-- 
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Janet Askren Brown  21:45 
--yeah. Yeah, it was for myself. 
 
Deborah Gates  21:46 
And did you do-- did your daughters help you while they were growing up? Did they help you 
with the housework and taking care of everything? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  22:00 
No, I didn't do too good job on that with them, because I wasn't home much, and when I was 
home, I was in too much of a hurry to get things done so I could do my homework. When you 
teach, there's a lot of extra things you got to do to get ready. You don't have much time to do 
anything for fun, you really have to work. Especially at first year, first few years, you have to 
really plan things. After that, it kind of comes naturally, but always trying to figure out 
something new though. I had to go to summer school about five years. And I got my fifth year of 
college after I started teaching, but I'd go into summer school. And one summer, I went up to 
Bellingham and took the girls up there, and we stayed in a house, and I went to summer school 
up there in the kindergarten. Well, I watched this other lady do the teaching, and kind of learned 
from that. I didn't exactly have to teach much, I don't think, but I-- well, sort of like cadetting, 
but I wasn't in charge of the whole thing, though. I don't believe. But anyway, we'd walk home 
and we go to parks and things, and got along, had fun. Besides, being at a different school is kind 
of fun. 
 
Deborah Gates  23:52 
So this was just for a summer you did this? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  23:54 
Mm-hm. 
 
Deborah Gates  23:54 
And this is more or less just train you, or? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  23:57 
Mm-hmm. For kindergarten. To learn new things. 
 
Deborah Gates  24:01 
So, was this when your daughters were young? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  24:04 
No, that was during-- well, see, I was going to summer schools for five years, so that-- by that 
time, why, they were older and-- Lynne was in the sixth grade when we moved up on the hill 
here, and we got this house, and I bought a house, and then I bought a car too, because they 
moved me way out to Lake Forest Park, and nobody was going in the carpool out that far. And 
so I had to buy a car in May and learn how to drive during the summer. And I took lessons. 
 
Deborah Gates  24:50 
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Who taught you? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  24:53 
I paid for them, and one of my girlfriends let me go around Mercer Island to-- because there 
were a lot of curves and that, and it was a good place to learn how to drive. It was not crowded 
like it is nowadays. It was more kind of country homes like in those days, I guess. And also out 
by Woodinville, I learned how to drive, practice on her car there. And so then the next summer-- 
well, by September, then I was able to drive up to school, to Lake Forest Park. And then the next 
summer after that, my younger daughter and I went down to California. By the time I got to 
Longview, Washington, I was ready to turn around come home [laughs], but I'd already told my 
aunts I was coming and so forth. So, we kept on going, but I was really tired. 
 
Deborah Gates  26:20 
Did you not like driving that much?  
 
Janet Askren Brown  26:23 
Well, it was my-- I had only just learned, you know, and so [laughs] it was not too easy. And 
then with the-- well, see, she'd have been in the-- she must have been in about the fifth grade 
then. So she and I went down there.  
 
Deborah Gates  26:43 
Where was your other daughter?  
 
Janet Askren Brown  26:43 
I can't remember where she was. She didn't want to go for some reason. 
 
Deborah Gates  26:53 
And were you going down there to visit some friends? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  26:55 
Uh-huh. Or-- well, my aunt was going to go to Australia, so she said we could use her apartment 
if we wanted to. And so we decided we might as well go down. We saw her before she left, you 
know, and then she left and let us use the apartment. But after I got down there, I parked the car 
and I didn't want to drive anymore in Los Angeles, it was horrible. And so we stayed there a 
week, I think, and then we went back up to visit my stepmother in Capitola, which is near Santa 
Cruz. I'm not sure how that went. I think we must have driven up there. Anyway, I didn't want to 
drive home. So I asked my boyfriend to come down and drive us home. So he did. He came 
down the airplane and took the car back, I think, from San Francisco Island. So we-- well, I went 
with him three years before I got married again, but I had been 13 years without any husband. 
 
Deborah Gates  28:28 
Did you date much in those years?  
 
Janet Askren Brown  28:30 
No, no. Wasn't even interested.  
 
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Janet Askren Brown  28:37 
Well, when I was 40 years old, I thought, boy, I don't know that I want to be  without any 
husband all my life, and I get lonely. And so I looked around, see if I could find anybody, and I 
started flirting with him. He'd never been married before, so he got married when he's 46 years 
old [laughs]. 
 
Deborah Gates  28:55 
But you had this boyfriend you mentioned.  
 
Janet Askren Brown  29:00 
Yeah.  
 
Deborah Gates  29:00 
Yeah, this wasn't the boyfriend you went with for three years, this was someone-- 
 
Deborah Gates  29:00 
This is your present husband.  
 
Janet Askren Brown  29:04 
--no. Later on. No, I never did-- well, I didn't have an official divorce until just a year before I 
got married again. But my other husband had this common-law wife, I guess you'd call her, and 
had three children by her. And then he got married again. Yeah, I guess. So he had three wives 
before he died.  
 
Deborah Gates  29:58 
So when you married, your present husband, were your daughters still at home? Were they 
teenagers at the time? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  30:07 
Yes [laughs]. He-- when he got married, it was, I think, the next day was Father's Day, and he 
really became a father in a hurry, because he got two teenage daughters and a female dog and a 
female cat. He was the only man around. 
 
Deborah Gates  30:32 
Quite a culture shock for him. 
 
Janet Askren Brown  30:34 
[Laughs] That was really rough on him.  
 
Deborah Gates  30:36 
Where did you meet him?  
 
Janet Askren Brown  30:38 
Church. And he was one of the elders in church. I guess he had been there 10 years, but I had 
never really noticed him too much, you know. But I was the superintendent for the primary 
department, and I needed a piano player, and I guess whoever was doing it was absent or 
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something. So somebody went upstairs and they said, Well, I heard Corwin playing the piano 
one day. Maybe he'd come and play for you. And they went upstairs and found him and asked 
him if he would. 