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<< Previous   of   Next >> Contributed photo  (click to enlarge) Adelene “Ad” Agnew   ADVERTISEMENT   Related Stories • Snohomish child care provider recalled for her work to promote Snohomish 11/22/09 • Marysville stylist kept her many clients well coiffed 11/15/09   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Sunday, September 27, 2009 Life Story: People were always ‘Ad’ Agnew’s top priority By Julie Muhlstein Herald Writer Devoted, compassionate, ethical, energetic, a one-of-a-kind dynamo. Those who knew and loved Ad Agnew describe her with the highest praise. From 1972 until 1985, she served as administrator for Snohomish County Superior Court. That demanding career never overshadowed the true loves of her life: her husband and family. “She was full of life, spunk and wisdom,” said John Agnew, the youngest of her five children. “Mrs. Agnew was one classy lady,” Sylvia Horsch told those gathered at a funeral Mass Monday at Everett’s Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, where Ad and her late husband, John, had been longtime parishioners. Horsch, a chaplain at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, called Agnew “a woman of deep, deep faith.” “She was completely devoted to her husband and family,” said Horsch, who met the Everett woman when Horsch was teaching first grade at Immaculate Conception School and young John Agnew was in her class. Adelene “Ad” Agnew died Sept. 16, just two months after the death of her husband, John H. Agnew. They were married more than 63 years, and John Agnew had fondly referred to his wife as his “Montana jewel.” She was 85. She is survived by her children: Kathy Watson, Susie Borovina, Jim Agnew, Jeannie Terwilliger and John J. Agnew; two grandchildren, Joe Borovina and Lindsay Agnew; her brother Al Letey; numerous nieces and nephews; and a large extended family in Italy. She was born April 10, 1924, in Roundup, Mont., to Anselmo and Emilia Letey. Her parents were natives of northern Italy, from a scenic area at the foot of the Alps. “She grew up speaking Italian,” Susie Borovina said of her mother. In Montana, Borovina said, her grandfather was a miner, while her grandmother and great-grandmother ran a hotel. Borovina said her mother was a high school valedictorian who won a college scholarship, but instead took a train to Washington, D.C., after graduation to take a job helping in the war effort during World War II. There, Borovina said, her mother shared a one-bedroom apartment with four other young women, and boasted of having seen a young Frank Sinatra while having a Coke at a drugstore. Back in Montana, she met her future husband at Great Falls Army Air Base, later named Malmstrom Air Force Base. They were married in 1946, and in 1949 they moved to Everett to raise their family. John Agnew worked 35 years for Alaska Airlines. “My mother was an absolute whiz at shorthand and typing, and throughout my growing up would occasionally step in and be a legal secretary,” Borovina said. During the 1970s, the Agnews lived near Tom Stiger, then a Superior Court judge. Borovina remembers Stiger walking over and talking with her mother about a new position, the court administrator. She held the position from 1972 until her retirement in 1985. “She was one of those unique individuals you meet in life, you never meet anyone else like them,” said Lester Stewart, now a Snohomish County Superior Court commissioner. Stewart held the court administrator job after Agnew’s retirement. When Agnew had the job, he said, there were no computers. “She coordinated by herself all the jury draws, and administration supplies for the courtrooms, and the entire administrative budget for the court,” Stewart said. “She was ultimately responsible for personnel decisions, managing payroll and benefits, dealing with the public and news media on high visibility issues, and meeting with her colleagues around the state.” Borovina recalled her mother having to go to J.C. Penney to buy a suit and shoes for Charles Rodman Campbell, who was on trial for the murder of two Clearview women and a child, and who was later convicted and executed. “She was a dynamo, compassionate, caring, efficient, one-of-a-kind,” Borovina said. “She was always concerned about the court, and for everybody who worked for the court, from the judges on down.” Stewart said that to Agnew, people who came to court weren’t statistics or litigants. “They were real people with real problems. She treated them with dignity,” he said. “Ad really lived her philosophy,” Stewart said. “Her spiritual beliefs and her compassion for people pervaded her professional life.” Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com. READER COMMENTS Be the first to comment. You must be a registered user and verify your e-mail address to post comments to blogs or articles on HeraldNet. To register, click here. To read other terms and conditions, click here. Log out

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