D'Anne Mount (1948-2016) was a longtime employee of the City of Seattle, a supporter of the arts, and active in Democratic politics. She died in late 2016, and this remembrance of her is provided by Seattle journalist Dick Lilly.
After an incredibly full life as a world traveler, public servant, life-long dedicated Democrat, and kind and generous friend to so many, D’Anne Mount died December 5, 2016, of illness brought on by renal failure.
Born January 25, 1948, in Altus, Oklahoma, D’Anne grew up in Norman and graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in political science, a passion that took her to Washington, D.C., where she worked for several years for a congressman from her home state. But travel always drew her, and after touring Europe in a classic beat-up VW van, she headed east by train and bus through India, then hitchhiked across Afghanistan to Katmandu, Nepal, adding a hike to Mt. Everest base camp before returning to the U.S.
Back in D.C., D'Anne worked a few years for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which sent her west following the eruption of Mount St. Helens. She fell immediately in love with the area. "When she was called back to D.C. she said 'no way' and moved here for good," said her brother, Bill Mount.
Arriving in Seattle, D’Anne joined Allied Arts and worked on Charles Royer’s second mayoral campaign (and, later, other political campaigns), meeting and making dozens of friends that she kept in touch with throughout her life. After a couple of other jobs, including one as lobbyist for Seattle Fire Fighters Union, IAFF Local 27, in 1981 she began her long career with the city in communications and media relations, first with the Department of Community Development and then, in the late 1980s, with the newly established Solid Waste Utility, which later became part of Seattle Public Utilities. Her last decade of city service was spent at the Department of Information Technology, where she was part of the city’s public-information disaster-response team until her retirement in 2013.
Outside of work, D'Anne was a great supporter of the arts and a regular subscriber to ACT, Seattle Arts and Lectures, and Seattle Men’s Chorus, among others. In recent years she took up tutoring adults in English at the downtown library.
Throughout the years, D’Anne continued to expand her extraordinary group of friends, often drafting them to join her on the many world-spanning trips she continued to take when money and vacation time permitted. She traveled again several times to India, and to Myanmar, Bali, Vietnam, and China, among other places, and she attended a world-renowned music festival in Timbuktu. There were local places, too. She owned a house in Seaside, Oregon, where her father lived during his later years, and eventually had two condos in Palm Springs, providing her with a getaway from Seattle to the warm weather she loved, and amazing the many friends she shared them with.
Friends truly were D’Anne’s life, and all were richer for knowing her. She traveled regularly back to Oklahoma to see high-school and college friends, and at work it seemed she knew and had a connection with nearly every employee in the Seattle Municipal Tower.
D’Anne was survived by her brother Bill Mount of North Lauderdale, Florida.
