Robert Maxie, 64, knew about diversity; he lived it

As the story goes, Robert Maxie had already made up the signs.

He had been considering a run for the 37th District seat in the state House of Representatives in 1969, but decided he was too busy. So he called a family meeting. His brother, Fred, remembered how it went:

"He said, `I got these Maxie signs made up, so somebody's going to have to do it.' "

His sister, Peggy Joan Maxie, ran and became the first African-American woman elected to the state Legislature.

And Mr. Maxie continued making signs and raising funds for other candidates, carrying on his long involvement in the local Democratic Party, while he ran restaurants and maintained an active civic life. He was remembered as a gregarious and industrious man who cared about his community and proved it with his actions.

Mr. Maxie was 64 when he died in an accidental house fire Jan. 31. He had been largely inactive since a 1988 stroke.

But before then, Fred Maxie said, "Just about every Democrat in the community - and most Republicans - knew Bob."

He became intrigued with politics as a boy, and began putting up yard signs for candidates in his Central District neighborhood while others his age were still playing ball. For money, he held down three paper routes at once - showing the drive that would eventually make him a Central Area fixture.

He attended Immaculate Conception grade school, then O'Dea High School and Seattle University before serving two years as a courier in the Army, stationed in Huntsville, Ala., at the height of segregation.

At the time, monkeys that had been used in satellite experiments were put in a park that was off-limits to blacks, recalled Mr. Maxie's wife, Sharon. "So Bob, coming from Seattle, called Sen. (Warren) Magnuson and said, `It's hardly fair that the monkeys are in the park where colored kids can't go.' " After his call, the animals were relocated. It was a small but telling victory. "It was so shocking to the colored community that anybody could represent them," Sharon Maxie said.

Mr. Maxie returned to Seattle, where he worked behind the scenes. Still, his brother said, "He was very bold. He didn't see barriers where other people saw them. If he wanted to get somebody a job, he'd go to the top person there and talk to them."

The party stalwart was appointed, by then-mayor Wes Uhlman, to the Seattle Public Library Board on which he served from 1970 to 1980, including a year as board president. Mr. Maxie was also a board chairman of the Public Defender Association, served with the Central Area Motivation Program and the state Surplus Food Program, as well as working as an administrator in a group home for youths.

Mr. Maxie owned a number of local restaurants and clubs beginning in the early 1960s, most recently the original Family Affair at Melrose Avenue and Pine Street and Maxie's Two at Fourth Avenue and Jefferson Street.

"When everybody came to one of Bob's restaurants, there was no telling who you'd see - it could be the governor, it could be street people, it could be anybody," Fred Maxie said. "You hear about diversity going around all the time these days, but Bob actually lived it."

Other survivors include his mother, Reba Maxie Jackson; sons Rodney and Tyrone; siblings Charles and Marcia Maxie, all of Seattle; as well as grandchildren, a nephew, niece and a large extended family.

A rosary will be held at 6 p.m. tomorrow at Immaculate Conception Church, 18th Avenue and East Marion Street. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday, at the same location. A reception will follow.

Mark Rahner's phone message number is 206-464-8259. His e-mail address is mrahner@seattletimes.co.