100 years ago today in Spokane: ‘Lady cop’ keeps city’s youth from the dance floor

Grace H. Kendall, Spokane’s only woman police officer, served as the de facto “city chaperone” for Spokane’s “erratic youth.”

Boys under 21 and girls under 18 were forbidden by law to dance in public halls without a parental order, and Kendall’s “duty was to see that the ordinance is enforced.”

“Unless a minor is able to show by note that his parents have no objections to his frequenting public dance halls, Mrs. Kendall keeps him off the dance floor until she is in possession of such permission,” said The Spokesman-Review.

At one dance, some dancers surreptitiously put a sign on her back that read, “Lady Cop,” causing laughter from the crowd. She apparently took this in good humor, because she was well-known for her “kindly and friendly personality.”

“She befriends instead of bullying and uses persuasion instead of force, very seldom having to make an arrest,” said the paper.

Kendall also had the job of enforcing a new ordinance that forbade suggestive dances such as the Texas Tommy. When she informed one “perspiring youth” that the Texas Tommy was forbidden, he replied, “No, this is Walulu Wiggle, the very latest thing out.”

Later, the law was amended, at her suggestion, to cover the latest thing out.