RAY AGNEW MOORE /
FORMER WASHINGTON STATE SENATORBig Island residency
flap ended career
SEATTLE >> Former Washington state Sen. Ray Agnew Moore, a tart-tongued Republican-turned-Democrat, advocate for the disadvantaged and legislative powerhouse who was forced to resign in a residency flap, died Saturday at home in Holualoa on the Big Island. He was 91.
Moore also was a former president of the Seattle Urban League and the Washington Mental Health Association, and co-founder of A Contemporary Theater.
After five unsuccessful bids for elective office, Moore was elected four times to the state Senate, the last in 1990. Planning to run again in 1994, he instead was forced to resign when he was found to be living primarily at his small coffee farm in Holualoa.
A former stockbroker and employee of Boeing, General Electric and Puget Sound Power & Light -- now Puget Sound Energy -- Moore was a force to be reckoned with on business and financial legislation. His biting wit knew no party lines.
One of Moore's proudest accomplishments was establishing Food Lifeline, a food distribution center covering western Washington, with his second wife, Virginia, who died in April.
Moore is survived by daughter Lucy, of Santa Fe, N.M.; stepdaughter Eileen Thorning, of Issaqua, Wash.; two grandsons; and one great-grandson. Private services were held. In lieu of flowers, donations are requested to the Hawaii Foodbank.