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Mamie Rand

Last Name:	Rand
First Name:	Mamie
Dates:	1894 (Date of Birth) 1995 (Date of Death)
Biography/History:	Mamie Laura Rand was born in 1894 to Frank and Minnie Rand. Her father, Frank P., was an eclectic “Renaissance man” – inventor, philosopher, entrepreneur, artist, photographer, and breeder of prize chickens – among other pursuits. The family moved to Spokane from Billings, Montana sometime around 1910, after having started out in Minnesota and moving around the Midwest for several years. Mamie followed somewhat in her father’s footsteps, following various pursuits throughout her lifetime – including a planned 1924 corporation with her father to form the “Park Creek Health Society” for “the establishment and maintenance of a Scientific, Philosophistic Health Resort in Newman Lake Town, Spokane County.” She was a clerk, then stenographer, and finally a bookkeeper for True’s Oil Company from 1913 (when she left school) until 1936. In 1937 Mamie started a pet shop with her sister Florence, perhaps inspired by their mother, whose occupation in the 1936 Polk Directory is listed as “kennels”. Petland, at W. 241 Riverside Avenue, was on the same block as Florence’s Bouquet Barber Shop. Within a few years, Mamie was the sole proprietor of Petland and operated it for almost 30 years. Mamie lived in her family home at E. 1024 Decatur Avenue from the time the family moved there in 1920, until her death in 1995. After their father’s death, Florence came to live with Mamie and their mother Minnie in the house. Mamie had multiple interests and was involved in many projects. She won ribbons for her Pekingese dogs at the Spokane Kennel club in 1931. She bred milk goats. She appreciated music and wrote songs and poems (something her father did as well). She crocheted and sewed her own clothes. She read writings on women’s issues, new health ideas, religion, and cooking. She was strongly committed to her family, and in the 1930s even adopted a young cousin, though the girl later returned to her biological mother. In 1995, shortly before her death, artist Kathryn Glowen received Mamie’s permission to use her personal belongings in collage artworks – an idea that Mamie was apparently very pleased about. Kathryn Glower’s resultant collage collection was first installed at WSU and written up by Eric Sorensen in the Oct 11, 1997 Spokesman-Review. The article has some excellent passages about Mamie and how she lived. According to Glowen’s account, Mamie’s most cherished belongings were photos of her sister, mother, and father. Mamie’s personal belongings were particularly suitable to Glowen’s purposes because she had lived in the same house for most of her life, never married, lived frugally (so did not have an overabundance of ‘junk’), and she kept records of just about everything she ever did - in keeping with her early career as a bookkeeper. In short, her entire adult life was documented in her house and its holdings. Mamie Rand passed away in March, 1995, 34 years after her sister Florence.