Anna Marie Laurence’s submarine lunchbox, a gift from Adm. Hyman Rickover, is not for sale. Neither is the house.
The longtime Everett home of the late U.S. Sen. Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson and his wife, Helen Jackson, who died Feb. 24, was purchased earlier this month by their daughter and her husband. Anna Marie and Daniel Laurence have moved from Seattle into the 1910 Colonial Revival landmark on Grand Avenue.
They have no intention of parting with that vintage metal lunchbox, which Anna Marie carried at Horace Mann Elementary School in Washington, D.C., or many other family keepsakes. But hundreds of other items — antique furniture, sterling silver, china, crystal, vintage linens, artwork, clothing and other mementos and treasures used by the Jackson family through the years — will be up for sale later this week.
A local nonprofit, the Assistance League of Everett, is organizing the estate sale scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the historic house at 1703 Grand Ave. Sale hours are 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. The league oversees about 15 such sales each year, said Barb Triboulet, who serves on the group’s estate sales committee with Viki Hennessy.
The Assistance League keeps 50 percent of sale proceeds, with the rest going to the family. Laurence didn’t disclose the home’s purchase price. Her brother, Peter Jackson, of Seattle, will share in half the estate.
Anna Marie Laurence sits at her mother’s roll-top writing desk, a well-used treasure that will be sold. (Dan Bates / The Herald)
Family members aren’t present during the estate sales. Money raised by the Assistance League helps support its Operation School Bell program, which provides clothing for children from low-income families throughout Snohomish County.
“This is a wonderful cause, helping needy children,” said Laurence, 55.
Triboulet, Hennessy and other Assistance League volunteers were at the house Thursday setting up the sale. It’s a big job that’s taken many days of pricing and staging Jackson family possessions — the ordinary to extraordinary.
A set of steak knives, a present from the late Sen. Barry Goldwater that still has its gift card, seemed a bargain at $40. Among the larger pieces is a set of wrought-iron furniture used by Scoop Jackson in his favorite place in the house, the sun porch just off the living room.
Vintage plates and cups with butterflies are among the selections in the Jackson house sale. These were favorites of Helen Jackson, who died in February. (Dan Bates / The Herald)
The late senator’s library, at the front of the house, will be off limits during the sale. Two of his leather and wicker chairs from the library will be available. “I’m pretty much keeping all my dad’s books,” Laurence said.
There are small items, too, signifying Scoop’s legacy, among them a set of Senate coasters.
It was 1967 when Jackson and his wife bought their Everett home, now known as the Butler-Jackson House. The family lived there summers and holidays, and owned another house in Washington, D.C. Helen Jackson made Everett her permanent home after Scoop Jackson’s death in 1983. Many treasures from the D.C. house made their way to Everett.
The U.S. Senate shaped their lives, but much of what’s for sale reflects the interests, tastes and history of Helen Jackson. A dainty tea set from China once belonged to Laurence’s maternal great-grandparents, Martha and Clyde Campbell. They were Methodist missionaries in Suchow, now known as Suzhou, where Laurence’s grandmother, Jean, was born.
Welcome Home: Anna Marie Laurence, daughter of the late Sen. Henry M. Jackson and his wife Helen, is the new owner, with husband Daniel Laurence, of her parents’ longtime Everett home. (Dan Bates / The Herald)
A lovely rolltop desk was where Helen Jackson once wrote her thank-you notes. The desk was in her bedroom. Clothing, all up for sale, includes her day-to-day outfits, but also a blue gown she wore at Anna Marie’s wedding.
There’s a yellow wicker rocker. Helen used it to rock her children and grandchildren. As babies, those children and grandchildren all spent their first months in a bassinet that is also in the sale.
The Laurence’s children, Jack and Julia, are 27 and 23. Jack Laurence works in Seattle. Julia is a recent graduate of Stanford University.
Daniel Laurence is an attorney who’ll commute from Everett to Seattle. For Anna Marie, it’s a homecoming that evokes childhood memories.
Among her playmates were the four daughters of Jeanne and Harry Metzger, “who lived right across the alley,” Laurence said. She remembered, too, the late Snohomish County Superior Court Judge John Wilson, father of the current Judge Joe Wilson, leading the way for annual Christmas caroling.
“It was a time, as a kid, we’d be outside running around all day,” she said. “We’d ride bikes, play basketball, Frisbee, hide-and-go-seek. It was just a fun time.”
What doesn’t sell at Assistance League estate sales goes to its Everett thrift shop, which also supports programs to help kids.
Laurence is ready for a fresh start in the couple’s new, old home.
“We want to make it our own,” she said.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.
Estate sale
An estate sale at the longtime Everett home of the late U.S. Sen. Henry M. Jackson and his wife, Helen, is scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The sale is organized by the nonprofit Assistance League of Everett. Hours are 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday; numbers for entry will be distributed starting at 8 a.m. only on the sale’s first day. Cash or credit cards only. The home is at 1703 Grand Ave., Everett.
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