Freddie Mae Gautier, 71; Community and Civil Rights Activist in Seattle

Freddie Mae Gautier, the well-connected community activist who fought for civil rights with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and baby-sat Jimi Hendrix, has died. She was 71.

Gautier, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, died Friday at the Bessie Burton Sullivan Care Home here, surrounded by her family.

Gautier’s involvement in civil rights brought her into contact with King, the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Her warmth drew great leaders and famed musicians.

“Some people may fight over her estate; others will be fighting over her Rolodex,” said James Kelly of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle.

Local legend had it that Hendrix, whom Gautier used to baby-sit, called her Mom. In 1970, she spoke at his funeral.

“They were real close,” said Hendrix’s father, Al Hendrix, who said he had known Gautier since “she was a little bitty thing.”

She was also a close friend to Quincy Jones, who got his musical start in Seattle.

Gautier fought in the 1970s to bring the Seattle Tennis Center to the then-largely black central area, and worked with a prominent local family to ensure creation of the city’s Martin Luther King memorial, her son Pierre Gautier said.

“There just wasn’t any aspect of life in Seattle in the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s that Freddie Mae Gautier wasn’t involved in,” former Mayor Norm Rice said Saturday.

When Gautier retired in 1997 as public service coordinator for the Seattle Municipal Court system, Abernathy’s widow, Juanita Abernathy, spoke at her retirement party, bringing tears to her eyes.

“Freddie Mae marched with us,” Abernathy said. “She’s always been there for civil rights.”

Gautier was reappointed last year by Washington Gov. Gary Locke to the state’s African-American Affairs Commission.

“She was a pioneer for the African American community in Washington state,” Locke said Saturday. “She was the epitome of Martin Luther King’s statement ‘Everyone can be great,’ and she’ll be sorely missed.”