Nestled in the countryside of Goldendale, about 60 miles south of Yakima, an unpaved driveway leads to a freshly painted blue house where Home Care Aide Dorothy Williamson has lived for the past 20 years.

Williamson recently painted the house herself, a skill from her former life as a professional painter. The dog barked announcing a visitor has arrived and Williamson’s client, Anna, greeted me at the door.

Inside was cozy, warm, full of pictures and comfortable furniture. It is a peaceful and quiet location and Dorothy says that is just how she likes it.

The family photos and newspaper clippings around her home reveal glimpses into a fascinating past as a shipyard detail painter, inventor, business owner, and the first black female prison guard in Oregon state.

Now a full-time caregiver for Anna, Dorothy reflected on the challenges and rewards of her varied careers.

After all the difficult and challenging jobs you have had, what made you want to start caregiving at this point in your life?

It’s true, in my 71 years, I’ve had all the ups and downs of jobs and life, but being a caregiver is the payback you get from the people.

All my clients make me feel better about who I am, like Anna. I’ve been taking care of Anna for seven years. She shines on me and makes me feel like a better person. I felt that with all my clients. They make me feel better and that is what I must be here for is to help them out.

When did you start caregiving?

I started caregiving in 1999. I worked for Addus at a nursing home and got my Nursing Assistant Certificate. I became an SEIU member when Addus was organized and I worked for them until 2013.

I was taking care of Anna then, too, but she got sick and her needs did not end when Anna’s hours for the day were used. I could not do both so I chose to take care of just Anna, who lives with me now.

I check her blood pressure, check her blood sugar twice a day, or more if she feels faint, and make sure she takes the right amount of insulin. I remind her to take her meds three times a day. She forgets a lot so I give her lots of reminders all day.

I help her with her bath, wash, and check her feet daily and help her get dressed. I cook her meals, arrange her appointments, pick up her meds, and go to all her doctor appointments with her.

Because she is not comfortable driving, I take her shopping and where she needs to go. I pay her bills and do all the cleaning and washing.

Dorothy, tell me about the stories behind these family pictures.

A photo of Williamson’s ancestors Marine Watkins, left, and Caroline, taken in the 1850s. Caroline arrived in the United States from Africa in 1828 and was sold to Watkins, an Irish cotton planter.

This is my sixth great grandmother who arrived from Africa in 1828 and was sold to a wealthy Irish cotton planter named Marine Watkins. He took her to his plantation near Garlandville, Miss., in Jasper County. There she was given the name Caroline.

When Caroline arrived in America she was already pregnant and the baby soon arrived and was named Rachel. By birth, Rachel was also a slave of Marine Watkins, and at age 15 she began to have his children, totaling 13.

I am a direct descendent of Marine and Rachel. So you see I’m all mixed up, part Irish, part African and part Choctaw Indian. The Choctaw relatives were mixed in there about three generations later. There are eight generations of descendants of Marine and Rachel now.

Where did you grow up and what were your dreams for yourself?

I grew up in Arizona near Nogales and I speak Spanish pretty well. That was where I learned to shoot and hunt. I can kill a deer, dress it and prepare it for food.

When I was young, I wanted to be a police officer, but being a woman was one strike against me in those days. And being a black woman was two strikes. So my chances of getting accepted to the police academy looked bleak.

I went to Portland Community College and got an associate’s degree in political science and sociology. Then I majored in criminal justice and minored in psychology at Oregon State.

Police officers were mainly men in those days. How were you able to get into that line of work?

My first jobs in the field were for Pinkerton Security and Swatt Security. At that time there were very few women in security and less in the prison system.

I thought if I got a job at Oregon State Penitentiary (OSP) I would eventually be able to get a job as a probation officer. I had done a lot of work and studying to get my certificate and I did volunteer work with women who came out of prison.

I helped them get set up in the community after they served their sentence. At that time, I had children to support and needed a paying job. My double major in administrative justice and criminology should have qualified me but the prison didn’t see it that way.

At the OSP there was only one black man who identified with Hawaiian ethnicity. Black men had to be real sharp to even get a job there and black women just didn’t get those jobs.

My neighbor was on the parole board at OSP and he thought I was a good candidate for a guard so he spoke up for me. I think his recommendation might have been the only reason I got hired. In 1982, I became the first black woman prison guard at OSP.

Home Care Aide Dorothy Williamson provides care for her client Anna in their home in Goldendale, Wash. (Photo by Paul Joseph Brown)

I’m sure you had to put up with a lot of discrimination in those days in a job dominated by men.

There was a lot of discrimination, which came directly from the administration, the other guards, and the inmates. I was a woman and I was black so I felt it a lot from the men. It became clear that they didn’t think I would last and they did a lot of things to make it hard for me and the other women.

In 1982, women weren’t allowed to go into the cell blocks, the yard, or where the men were. Women were mostly assigned to work in the control center.

When it came time to take our exams we women could not pass because we weren’t allowed to get the experience we needed to answer the questions. Since we could not pass the tests it made us look like we were not qualified to do our jobs.

I got assigned to the towers and worked alone until midnight for six months before they trained me with weapons, or any other training.

I knew how to handle a firearm because of my home background. The male guards identified everyone by color or race, instead of names. It was “that black guy over there, or that Indian.” I had to just endure it.

One of the inmates told me about a couple of the guards who said they wanted to get me fired because they didn’t want to work with a black woman. He warned me to look out for them. From then on I was always cautious around them.

One guard who was married but would leave roses on my car and I had to get real tough with him to get him to stop. One of the inmate’s wives met me in the parking lot and made physical threats against me for frisking her husband. She said it was offensive that a woman who was not his wife would touch him, but frisking inmates was part of my job.

One inmate who was Sioux liked teaching me words in Sioux but then one day he put his hands on me. I had to protect myself in my own way because I knew if I went to the administration they would make it hard on me and make it seem like it was my fault.

This was a maximum security prison so some of the most atrocious killers of the time were housed there; Dayton Leroy Rogers, Ted Bundy, and Randall B. Woodfield.

I had to shoot prisoners with rock salt to break up fights. When there was a lockdown, the guards were locked down with the prisoners and no one was let in or let out. There wasn’t negotiation for guard release either. When we were on duty at our posts we couldn’t leave that post until someone came to relieve us. I sometimes spent all night at my post because no one came to relieve me.

We sued the state in 1983 for discrimination of women and won the suit eventually.

Where did you go from that position?

I also worked for the shipyard at the same time as a detail painter. In 1995, I opened my own company, Wister Works, making fanny packs and flight bags.

Home Care Aide Dorothy Williamson is featured in a Feb. 17, 1997, article in The Oregonian about her product invention, The Paint Caddy.

In 1996, I invented a paint caddy because when I worked as a detail painter I had to carry my supplies up the ladder with me. Things would often fall and I had to climb back down to get them.

I got so sick of that, so I started to use yogurt containers tied together with a string around my waist to prevent dropping them and keep my hands free. It worked pretty well.

Then one night I had a flash and an idea came to me like a dream. I designed and created a paint caddy, Dorothy’s Paint Caddy. The best way I can describe it is an apron with pockets to hold small paint containers.

The containers have a hinged lid so the lids won’t fall. The apron also has loops sized just right to hold your painting tools and leave both hands free to climb the ladder safely.

There are two styles: One ties around the waist, like my old yogurt container and string did. I call that one Dorothy’s Shorty. The other one is full length with a bib to keep your shirt clean when the paint splatters. I have a patent for them.

I’ve been on TV to advertise them and stores have tried to buy it from me. But they don’t want to pay me much for them so I won’t sell to them. They sell themselves anyway. When people see how well they work they want one!

You know about the Black Lives Matter movement so I was wondering what your thoughts are about it.

We need this movement! It is harder for people who are black or disabled, or new to this country but it doesn’t have to be that hard. This movement will make people aware of the fact that black people are not content with how things are for them. We need changes to make life more equitable for black people.

There are a lot of young people in this movement and they have some good ideas about how to change things for the better. When I was young I was involved in the busing issues of students. I walked with Rev. Jesse Jackson to make people aware of changes we needed then. But the young people now have different issues to be resolved. Through this kind of movement is how we make people aware of what needs to change.

Being a caregiver makes me understand how much all people need love. I think we have to show people we love them not hate them. There is not enough love shown to people. We spend a lot of time hating people for no good reasons.

What changes would you like to see happen for Home Care Aides?

The fact that I do not make enough money taking care of Anna to pay the bills and house payments is sad. Taking care of Anna is really 24/7 and I don’t have any respite for Anna so I can get away.

If something happens that causes me to work more with her than I am paid, I have to just do it and not get paid. I can’t say, “Well my time is up for the day, so I can’t do that.” Somehow we need to rectify that because it happens more often than caseworkers or agencies know.  Many caregivers are like me, they love their jobs and their clients but can’t support their families on the wages.

If I could transfer the time I worked in caregiving in Oregon to Washington, I would be getting paid better by now. But when I came to Washington I had to start over. We need to work on those issues for caregivers.