Triple Date – Conversation with former Senators Alicia Salisbury and Nancy Parrish, October 23, 2020
Interviewed by Joan Wagnon
In this short 2020 Statehouse Conversation two former Kansas State Senators, Nancy Parrish and Alicia Salisbury recall their first year serving in the Kansas Senate. In 1984 Shawnee County elected three women Senators: Nancy Parrish, a Democrat; Jeannie Hoferer, a Republican, and Alicia Salisbury, a Republican. Martin Hawver, a reporter for the Topeka Capitol Journal at that time, referred to them as a "Triple Date." Two of the three former senators discuss briefly what it was like in the Senate in 1985 when they took their seats and how they were treated by their male colleagues. Salisbury and Parrish saw women's issues as "people issues." Salisbury relates being removed from a conference committee on an education bill because she "did what's best for the schools she represented."
Nancy Parrish is originally from Cedar Vale, Kansas in Chautauqua County, the southeast, south central part of the state. She received her bachelor's degree from Kansas State University, her master's in Special Education from the University of Kansas, and her law degree from Washburn University. Parrish represented Senate District 19 in the Kansas Senate from 1980 until 1992. After her service in the Kansas Senate, Parrish was appointed Secretary of Revenue, serving in the Governor's cabinet from 1992 until 1994 when Governor Finney appointed her as judge for the Third Judicial District in Shawnee County. She has served as Chief Judge of that court from 2005 to 2013 and was serving as judge at the time of this interview.
Alicia Salisbury, former Kansas State Senator representing District 20 in Topeka, served in the Kansas legislature from 1985 until 2000. She served as the Vice President of the Senate, Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, Vice Chair of the Education Committee, and Vice Chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. Salisbury earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Kansas in 1961. Prior to service in the Kansas legislature, she served on the Kansas State Board of Education for four years. Salisbury was a founding Chair of the Kansas Action for Children and served on the Board of Directors of Kansas, Inc. Her volunteer service includes Leadership Kansas, former chair; Kids Count Steering Committee, past president of the Junior League of Topeka and National Conference of State Legislatures Executive Committee. Salisbury is married to John Salisbury and has two children and several grandchildren.
Statehouse, Topeka, KS
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