If you’ve walked by a bronze bust in Coeur d’Alene Library’s Community Room and wondered what that person did, here Louise Shadduck is remembered there. The one-time young reporter at the Coeur d'Alene Press accomplished great things. One of her first was to head Idaho’s Department of Commerce and Development during a statewide economic turnaround some called miraculous.

That story began when she was 43. She had never been to college and her only experience in running a business was helping on her parents’ farm north of Coeur d’Alene. Yet in 1958 she was given a monstrous task.

That year, according to Bill Hall of the Lewiston Tribune, Idaho was the only state in the West to shrink in personal income. Angry voters rejected almost all Republicans in Idaho’s government. Gov. Smylie, re-elected by the slimmest margin, had to turn around the economy while working with a Legislature, Statehouse officers, even his lieutenant governor, all from the opposite party. He turned to an unlikely young friend who had already done amazing things.

As a teenager, Shadduck was recruited right out of high school by Burl Hagadone, then editor of the Coeur d'Alene Press. Her first assignment, reporting births, deaths and marriages, may seem like drudge work. To her it was an exciting way to get to know people of the city. Soon her “This and That” column lifted up small items important to everyday people.

She started getting assignments for politics, volunteering in WWII home-front programs and leading Young Republicans. Gov. “Doc” Robbins noticed her, insisted she join his staff, and soon asked her to head it. She redecorated the governor’s office, decided who got to speak to him, even insisted on learning the Statehouse filing system.

After repeated efforts, U.S. Sen. Dworshak convinced her to run his Washington office. That’s where Shadduck impressed other national leaders and in 1956 was picked to appear on national television at the Republican National Convention to give a nominating speech for Dwight Eisenhower. This was a rare honor for a woman then, let alone one in her 30s. Two years later Idaho’s governor called for help.

Driving back to Idaho, Shadduck stopped in Colorado to ask their head of commerce where to start. He advised her to get people into Idaho any way she could. Her first strategy then was to build tourism. While she is often remembered for promoting tourism, her goal was not to get people to stay in hotels and take pictures. What she wanted was for people to see Idaho and smell the air so they would come back and bring their families, businesses and dollars.

Other states had million-dollar development budgets to lure business. She had almost no development budget. Undaunted, she started with an office in the attic of the Statehouse, working with what she had. She met with business leaders who had been ignored in the past. She asked Idaho’s fifth grade teachers to have their students write fifth graders in other states, telling them to get their parents to come to Idaho.

She used her journalism experience to encourage stories about Idaho in hunting and fishing magazines. At home on a horse, the one-time farm girl led business leaders and celebrities herself on horseback fishing and hunting trips into Idaho’s mountains.

Saying she had “printers’ ink in her blood,” Shadduck continued writing her own press releases and using her old newspaper and political contacts. The one-time high school cheerleader traveled the state, speaking and promoting Idaho. With each little success, such as a project or factory being built or a business moving here, she would make sure the story was told, retold and used to convince Idaho’s Legislature of the need for development funds.

One set of achievements brought millions into the state’s economy and had many lasting effects, including a new state park. These three events each brought tens of thousands of Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts to Idaho. But the details of that scouting story and her achievements in forestry and human decency are for later articles in this series.

This first this installment is about how she used simple strategies, personal hard work and a sense of fairness to lead the state’s Commerce and Development Department into some of the state’s most successful 10 years. The Lewiston Tribune called the period “Idaho’s Unprecedented About-Face.” The writer quoted Business Week, to call Idaho one of the fastest growing states in personal income, for one month, the fastest in the nation.

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Mike Bullard is the local author of "Lioness of Idaho: Louise Shadduck and the Power of Polite." Bullard will give free copies of the book to anyone who donates to League of Women Voters at Emerge during Art Walk, Friday, Oct. 14, or at a book reading from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9 at Coeur d'Alene Public Library.