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Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Lindsay Buxton 
April 21, 1996 
Cassette 3, Side 1 
 
 
Debbie Guerrero  00:01 
The date is April 21. Lindsay Buxton. It is-- this is tape number three. Was there any other forms 
of schooling, or night school, or special training, preparation for a job or career? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  00:19 
I've pretty much given up the idea of college, and my goal, really in life, was just to be a mother, 
a wife. I paid very close attention to home economics. I like to sew. I like to cook. I love to 
house clean. I love to give orders [laughs]. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  00:48 
Good mom. 
 
Lindsay Buxton  00:49 
Yeah. I read an awful lot of books; child behavior, home-making. When I married my best 
friend, he was happy that that's all I really aspired to be. I thought motherhood and being a wife 
was the greatest contribution, you know, to America. I saw a lot of unwanted children. I knew 
that the children I would have would be wanted, they'd be protected. I knew that I'd be a better 
mother than my mother. My mother taught me a lot [laughs]. When my husband died, I realized 
that-- well, I left with a 10,000 insurance. I realized that I'd have to go to work. I went to work as 
a waitress, and I decided to go back to school. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  02:01 
How long were you married to this man-- and this was Leonardo Mandapat? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  02:05 
Right, yes. 10 years.  
 
Debbie Guerrero  02:09 
And how did he die?  
 
Lindsay Buxton  02:11 
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He was killed in Cordova, Alaska. He was Filipino, Spanish, and Japanese, and he's from the 
Philippines, San Carlos, Pangasinan. I tell you that because I think that the Japanese blood really 
created a problem with him.  
 
Debbie Guerrero  02:40 
It did? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  02:41 
Yeah, psychologically. He was an illegitimate child. He was born under the Mandapat family 
name, but it was really shameful that this family-- it was perceived as being shameful that his 
mother would have a Japanese lover.  
 
Debbie Guerrero  03:06 
Oh, I see.  
 
Lindsay Buxton  03:06 
Yeah. So, he had a pretty much of a psychological problem, and got into fights a lot. He drank a 
lot. He never abused me. He was a good husband. He was a good father. He went to Cordova, 
Alaska to set up the cannery business, and he was in a bar, and got into a fight with, you know, a 
Mexican fellow. And when he was walking home alone, this Mexican fellow that he got into a 
fight with, had two of his buddies. They attacked him. They stabbed him. He bled to death. And 
because they were there to set up and the medical team was not already there, he bled to death. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  04:15 
Oh no. How old was he? Do you remember? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  04:18 
In his 30s. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  04:19 
Was he? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  04:20 
Yeah. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  04:20 
He was young, and you had already had your three children too? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  04:24 
Oh yeah. I had my three children by the time I was 18. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  04:28 
With him? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  04:29 
Yeah. 
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Debbie Guerrero  04:31 
So how-- so, you were 28 then, when he died? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  04:37 
Yeah.  
 
Debbie Guerrero  04:37 
With three children, a single woman.  
 
Lindsay Buxton  04:40 
Yeah.  
 
Debbie Guerrero  04:40 
Woah. 
 
Lindsay Buxton  04:45 
Age may not be exactly correct, but I have to go back and figure that. Yeah, because I was 16-- 
well, let's say 20, 26. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  04:59 
You were 16 when you married him?  
 
Lindsay Buxton  05:01 
Yes, he was 20. So, he was closer to late 30s. Yeah. Anyway, I have to say when. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  05:15 
How did his death affect you? I mean, I know shock and numbness, and-- 
 
Lindsay Buxton  05:20 
We had been separated.  
 
Debbie Guerrero  05:20 
Had you? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  05:20 
Yes. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  05:20 
Oh, I see. 
 
Lindsay Buxton  05:22 
Yeah, we had been separated. But as I said, he was my best friend. He had psychological 
problems. He had-- when we had met, he had just come from the Philippines, got involved with 
the Filipino gang, and... We both needed one another, and took off, and ran away. I had a touchy-
touchy stepfather, and I realized that my mother was depending on me too much to take care of 
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my younger sisters. It was quite obvious that I was not gonna be able to go to college. I was 
getting a little tired of going to school, working and then coming home, and taking care of the 
house, and my children-- my sisters, because they're my children, and... And then having to deal 
with my stepfather, who was getting very touchy-touchy. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  06:38 
So where did you meet him? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  06:39 
I met him when I was working at a Filipino restaurant called Manila Café in the International 
District. I was introduced to him by my older sister, Dorothy. We hit it off. We just hit it off. We 
fell in love. He explained his problems with his father. I explained my problems with my 
stepfather. We both shared, encouraged one another. When we came back a year later, of course, 
I had my baby boy at that time, we went to live with my older sister in Sebastopol, California. 
My first son was born in Santa Rosa, California. That's Reynaldo. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  07:33 
You were living with Juanita or Dorothy?  
 
Lindsay Buxton  07:35 
Juanita. Dorothy-- we shared expenses with my older sister, Juanita, and Dorothy lived a cabin 
away from us. So, that was kind of nice. You know, with my first baby, with my two older 
sisters, that was really nice. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  08:00 
So, when you found out that he had been murdered-- 
 
Lindsay Buxton  08:04 
Oh yeah-- 
 
Debbie Guerrero  08:04 
Then you had to come to the grips of reality, that you had to get a job that would support your 
children? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  08:10 
Yeah, I went to a business college, Metropolitan business college, got my GED from Seattle 
Central Community College. It was called Edison Tech at that time. Years later, I took classes at 
Laney Junior College.  
 
Debbie Guerrero  08:38 
Laney? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  08:40 
Yeah. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  08:41 
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L-A-N-E-Y? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  08:42 
L-A-N-E-Y. In California, and while working for the California Indian Legal Services, which 
was just a block away or a couple of blocks from Berkeley University, I started thinking very 
seriously about my education. Of course, I realized our children are not always going to be 
around, and I should think about taking care of myself. And I thought the best way to do that was 
to continue my education. Know how things happen. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  09:25 
So, but didn't you eventually-- you earned your AA Degree? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  09:29 
No, I'm 15 credits away from an AA. I still-- [laughs] but still plugging away.  
 
Debbie Guerrero  09:34 
That's right. Way to go. That's the way to do it. 
 
Lindsay Buxton  09:49 
It-- I explained to my younger sisters and sharing my experience. You know? Don't-- I advise 
them not to give up their lives, their dreams, their aspirations, just because they got married, that 
they have a life individually. I wish somebody had told me that. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  10:15 
Yes, exactly. 
 
Lindsay Buxton  10:18 
I had put off-- to me, my dream, you know, is that I would finish school, college. Everybody and 
everything seemed more important than me. I can look at it now and see that. Well, I'm going to 
be 56 pretty soon. I better hurry. The only senior citizen getting this first degree [laughs]. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  10:48 
Oh, I don't think so. A lot of people wait. I mean, you know, you hear stories about people in 
their 80s or 90s. 
 
Lindsay Buxton  10:55 
Yeah, I know. Yeah. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  10:56 
So it's never too late. 
 
Lindsay Buxton  10:58 
Yeah. Well, at this rate, I may end up painting [laughs]. Right. Yeah. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  11:10 
What about best friends? Did you have a best friend? 
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Lindsay Buxton  11:13 
Yes, in grade school. It's so ironic... After my experience with my father-- well, prior to that, I 
really had a hard time of identifying with white people. After my experience with my father, I 
just really stayed away from white people. And when I was going-- when I enrolled myself in 
Catholic school, I had noticed that a blonde-haired, blue-eyed classmate lived just a block away 
from me on First Avenue. Mother and I-- and Dorothy Kelter is her name. Her mother also lived 
in lighthouse keeping apartments, and we started walking to school together, and sharing secrets, 
and going to the Embassy Theater every Saturday. As I said, it's ironic, because I didn't really 
want to get close to any white girls or white people, but she ended up being my best friend. We 
sang songs, we made up stories. We shared dreams and aspirations and helped one another with 
homework, and her mother had a problem also, with drinking. So we bonded. And she changed 
my whole attitude about white people. Well, they're not all so bad, you know. Dorothy's dream 
was to marry a policeman. Years later, because I travel so much, we lost contact, and the time 
that I ran into her, we embraced and cried, you know, we had lunch together, and I-- my first 
question was, Did you ever marry your policeman? She said, No. I said, Oh. But she said, I'm 
just as happy with, you know, her husband. We lost contact again. I was always very grateful, 
you know, to the friendship, and I'm sure we'll eventually get back together again. But I know 
that she thinks about me, because I certainly think about her quite often. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  14:06 
It was a gift.  
 
Lindsay Buxton  14:11 
Yes, it was a gift. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  14:12 
Did you ever have any animals or pets?  
 
Lindsay Buxton  14:14 
Oh, yes. As a little girl, when my mother and I lived in Wahpeto, we had-- well, we live in a 
farm. So there were horses, and pigs, and goats. My stepfather, at that time, had brought home a 
goat. I thought it was a pet because Mother had said, What are you going to name him? I said, I 
don't know. She said, How about Billy? I said, Yeah, Billy. But... 
 
Debbie Guerrero  14:56 
He soon became [inaudible]. 
 
Lindsay Buxton  14:58 
Yes, he did. He soon became [inaudible]. I was crushed. I vowed not to get attached to goats 
anymore. Pigs too. Chickens too. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  15:11 
Yeah. Oh, yeah.  
 
Lindsay Buxton  15:11 
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I had a very acute experience. My stepfather, you know, is Filipino and they love these 
cockfights.  
 
Debbie Guerrero  15:22 
Right.  
 
Lindsay Buxton  15:23 
And my mother liked the coloring on this one rooster. She named him Pete. And I got attached to 
Pete, and-- but I had never really seen what roosters do. I knew that they fought. I mainly went-- 
accompanying my mother and stepfather to eat biko, you know, sweet rice. And then, one day, I 
got a lift up to see over the fence, fence that shielded general public from seeing these roosters 
with knives attached to their, you know, legs. I screamed. It was just awful to see. Well, Pete lost 
the fight, and my mother told me that he was going to die, and I ran out to my stepfather to tell 
him to save his life. You know, save Pete's life. So, he sewed up Pete.  
 
Debbie Guerrero  16:32 
He did?  
 
Lindsay Buxton  16:34 
Yeah, he sewed up Pete, and Pete recovered.  
 
Debbie Guerrero  16:39 
Oh, there it goes.  
 
Lindsay Buxton  16:40 
Pete fell in love with me, and-- 
 
Debbie Guerrero  16:45 
You were his savior.  
 
Lindsay Buxton  16:47 
He thought he was a dog, and he followed me. He followed me around. People used to marvel. 
Here I was, six or seven years old, and there's this rooster following me. I didn't have to put him 
on a leash or anything. And when dogs would come snarling, he would, you know, put out his 
wings to protect me. I mean, Aw Pete. Pete was eventually ran over.  
 
Debbie Guerrero  17:23 
Was he? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  17:24 
Yeah. And then I had a wild rabbit as a friend. My stepfather, same stepfather, was trying to help 
me get over Pete. So he said, You want a rabbit? I said, Yes! I said, Not to cook, though. No, no 
cooking. So he found this rabbit out in the field. And we had a great big box, and I would feed it 
carrots, and lettuce, and all that sort of stuff, and play. It was a wild rabbit, but it eventually let 
me pet it, and... But he wouldn't let anybody else pet it. Yeah.  
 
Page 8 of 12 
 
Debbie Guerrero  18:16 
He must've liked your spirit.  
 
Lindsay Buxton  18:18 
Yeah, oh yeah.  
 
Debbie Guerrero  18:20 
You know?  
 
Lindsay Buxton  18:20 
Yeah. He eventually ran away. Some kids put his box up and-- jealous and scared Pete away. I 
don't know what ever  became of Pete. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  18:39 
You mean the rabbit? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  18:40 
The rabbit, yeah [laughs]. Right. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  18:44 
He was hit by a car, right? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  18:46 
Right, right. Probably run over by a car or tractor. Anyway. And then, the other animal, love of 
my life, was a-- I don't know what kind of a dog it was, but it was black, short haired, jet-black, 
little dog. Female. My mother called her Susie. Susie. When my stepfather, Rudy de la Cruz, and 
my mother broke up. Mother and I returned from-- I'm guessing, Stockton, California, to Seattle 
by Greyhound, and my stepfather said he can't take Susie on Greyhound. They won't allow pets. 
And I'm crying. I didn't really understand what was going on in their relationship, but I just knew 
that our going to Seattle meant that I would terribly miss Susie. I loved Susie. We slept together, 
you know, we played. She was my adventurous pal. My stepfather said, But I will come to 
Seattle in a couple of months, and I will bring Susie. So I felt better about that. Anyway, to make 
a long story short, one day, Mother and I-- oh, I cried for Susie. But one day, Mother and I were 
walking down the street, and I looked, and I saw Susie. And I said, Mama, look at, there's Susie. 
Oh, you stop that now, she's in California, you know? And I said, No, she's there. So I ran, and 
Susie ran towards me, and so we were hugging and kissing, and she smelled terrible, and she, 
you know, she had battle scars on her. She'd been through an awful lot, and we were looking all 
over for Rudy, you know, my stepfather. Nobody knew where he [inaudible]. Susie was run over 
by a car. Yeah. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  21:08 
How did she get to Seattle from California?  
 
Lindsay Buxton  21:10 
Susie sensed where we were. 
 
Page 9 of 12 
 
Debbie Guerrero  21:14 
Really?  
 
Lindsay Buxton  21:14 
Yeah. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  21:15 
She came up to find you? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  21:17 
Yeah. Two weeks later, my stepfather showed up and he said, Oh, Dolly, I gotta tell you about 
Susie. She ran away. I said, I know! I know, she came here. He said, No, she couldn't have. I 
said, Yes. My mother said, Yeah, Susie was here. He said, I'll be damned. You know? A reporter 
came over to interview my mother and I. I was told it was in the newspaper. I never saw the 
newspaper article, and it was a human interest story. I think I would like to see that, but Susie 
made me so happy. When I was expecting my third child, I just knew that I was going to be a 
boy, and so I had planned Roberto was going to be his name. Everything was blue and 
embroideried, you know, his [?kimonos?] and receiving blankets with Roberto? Well, to my 
shock, Roberto was a girl, and when I first-- I said, A girl, how nice, you know. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  22:41 
Now you didn't have a name for them. 
 
Lindsay Buxton  22:43 
Yeah, I didn't have a name. And she had, she had a head full of jet-black hair. And the first thing 
that came to my mind was Susie, my beloved pet. And I just knew. I believed in reincarnation, 
that Susie came back to me, in human form, my daughter. Oh, Susan was her name. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  23:10 
That's perfect.  
 
Lindsay Buxton  23:10 
Susan Leticia. I told my story to my daughter. She was a Sagittarian and had a wonderful gift 
with animals just as well then. I was telling her that story, and she said, [gasps] You named me 
after a dog. I wish I hadn't told her. I wish she hadn't received that story so negatively, because I 
just loved, you know, my Susie. And she calls herself Leticia. She goes by her middle name. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  23:43 
Does she? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  23:43 
Yeah, but the family still calls her Susie. I was telling my second son, Leonardo, that story, and 
he said, Well, Mother, I'm sure glad you didn't name me Pete. I said, Why would I call you Pete? 
And he said, because I was born in the year the rooster. And I said, Oh, Pete [laughs]. It's funny. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  24:17 
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That is funny. Well, do you want to move on to puberty and sex education?  
 
Lindsay Buxton  24:25 
Sure.  
 
Debbie Guerrero  24:26 
Did anyone tell you about that? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  24:29 
Sex education?  
 
Debbie Guerrero  24:31 
Or puberty, or menstruation?  
 
Lindsay Buxton  24:33 
In school. You know, we talked. It was always a, you know, [mimics whispers], you know, when 
one of the classmates, you know, would start ministrating.  
 
Debbie Guerrero  24:46 
Was this in the Catholic school by any chance? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  24:49 
This is public school, no. Catholic school seemed a little bit more practical and realistic, you 
know, about bodily functions and not so, you know, hush hush, you know, as Catholic-- public 
school was, yeah, it was very amazing. Mother did describe a menstrual cycle. It was kind of 
comical. She said, One day you'll get your flower, and I'm thinking of bouquet. But she said that 
was the Filipino terminology, and she said that one-- she said, When you become a woman, 
you'll start, you know, bleeding between your legs. And I said, Oh, God, how awful! Why? And 
she said, Well, I can't explain the technical terms and anything, but it means that you're not going 
to have a baby. I said, Good grief, can't they let you know another way [laughs]? She said, Don't 
take this funny. And I was laughing at something. She said, This is serious. One day you'll be a 
woman. And I said, I'd rather be a man. She said, No, you'll be happy as a woman. I looked at 
her life and I thought, I don't know-- I don't think a woman's life is very happy. You know, I see 
men going out and they're working, doing jobs, what they want. When they come home, they're 
waited on hand and foot, and their laundry is all taken care of and stuff, and the woman is the 
workhorse. I did not think being a woman would have made me happy. If I could have avoided 
my period to be neutral, I would've been happy with that. Mother said there were Tlingit 
practices [coughs] on becoming a woman. You know, supposed to stay in the dark and then stay 
away from the men. Don't touch this, and don't touch that. Don't eat this. Don't eat that, 
especially shell food, you know, and seaweed. It just, it just maddened me that there were these 
penalties added to discomfort. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  27:43 
Restrictions.  
 
Lindsay Buxton  27:44 
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Yes, the restrictions are just too much. It was interesting. Most of the discussion in the Filipino 
culture and a lot of native women that were married to Filipinos always referred to women 
ministrating as "she's having her flower". 
 
Debbie Guerrero  28:10 
I've never heard that before. 
 
Lindsay Buxton  28:22 
We used Kotex, a big, heavy Kotex that were like saddles. We were so happy. I felt like 
celebrating when Tampax was eventually-- it was like a woman's revolution, right there, you 
know? Now we could skip and jump, carry on, and wouldn't have to worry about having full 
skirts all the time to cover this padding between your legs.  
 
Debbie Guerrero  28:52 
You used to have to have belts or something? 
 
Lindsay Buxton  28:56 
Yes, oh God. And carry extras in your purse, in case, yes. And why were they so long? Why 
were they so thick? And, heaven forbid, if you should drop one, you know, with a boy around, I 
mean, and that had happened, you know, and there was a lot of teasing, and it was very 
awkward. Who likes to be teased about bodily functions [laughs]? 
 
Debbie Guerrero  29:31 
Do you remember how old you were when you first started your period?  
 
Lindsay Buxton  29:34 
12. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  29:34 
12? That's one of those ages that women don't forget.  
 
Lindsay Buxton  29:36 
Yeah.  
 
Debbie Guerrero  29:37 
It's like, Oh, yeah. 
 
Lindsay Buxton  29:38 
Right.  
 
Debbie Guerrero  29:38 
I know where I was. No doubt. Well, what was your early adulthood like? What were your 
expectations about future-- expectations, marriage, family, work. Well, you've talked about a lot 
of that. 
 
Lindsay Buxton  30:02 
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Yeah, I did [laughs]. 
 
Debbie Guerrero  30:08 
How was your first job? 