Political Activist Dead At 78 Land-Albrecht Was Always Willing To Bark For Her Pet Causes

“Crusty Old Broad” Lois Land-Albrecht, a former City Council member known for caustic yapping rivaled only by her three-time law-breaker dog, Bandito, died Thursday after a long illness.

The retired teacher, remembered for her quick wit, feisty tongue and liberal causes, was 78.

She could make listeners howl with laughter or cringe in embarrassment. What she couldn’t do was make them forget her.

“I used to say ‘mom, calm down,’ but she’d say ‘I have to get people’s attention before they’ll look at the issues,”’ said her daughter, Gretchen Hellar in Sandpoint. “If they can’t ignore me they have to deal with them.”

She had little to worry about.

She began a long, mostly unsuccessful Idaho political career nine months after arriving in Coeur d’Alene from Pittsburgh.

After dubbing local politicos “king makers,” she won a City Council seat, immediately earning a moniker of her own: “crusty old broad.”

“It wasn’t meant in any way other than affectionate,” said former Mayor Jim Fromm. “She had a real ability to make people mad, but only if they took her too seriously. If they did, she’d explode.”

Between unsuccessful follow-up bids for political office, Land-Albrecht made news through her ever-barking mutt Bandito. The pet was convicted three times during court trials of violating a dog ordinance Land-Albrecht helped write.

Hellar laughed, remembering the doggie trials at which a tape was produced of a barking dog and an engineer lectured on the movement of sound waves.

“She basically felt it wasn’t her role or responsibility or right to break a dog’s spirit,” Hellar said.

Some of Land-Albrecht’s more memorable quips include:

“Nobody calls me a liar without taking me to court to prove it,” she said in 1981 of Mayor Don Johnston.

“They say I don’t know my place,” she said in 1983. “I say I never had one.”

“She said I’d been wearing the same dress since Sunday,” Lois said in early 1984, explaining why she was running for county commissioner. “When a Republican has the nerve to say that to me, it restores my faith in the Democratic Party.”

“Put a top hat on him and give him a cane and have him do a shuffle and he looks just like Mr. Peanut,” she said in 1984 after losing a county commissioner race to Frank Henderson.

Hellar said her mother’s Abbie Hoffman-esque persona was not developed in Idaho. She’d been that way all her life.

“I was raised in an upper middleclass suburban neighborhood of 40,000 people, about 200 of which were Democrats,” Hellar said. “My mom was always there fighting for this or running for that.”

She was among the first teachers to outwardly oppose the war in Vietnam. She twice was suspended from East Coast teaching jobs - once for wearing a black armband during the Cambodian invasion; once for reporting a vice principal for physically punishing a student (a case she later fought and won before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.)

Land-Albrecht wished to be cremated and have her ashes put on the steps at City Hall, Hellar said.

“I told her, ‘well, we can’t do that,”’ Hellar said.

Those who knew her will imagine them there anyway.

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