Joe McKinnon

2022 closes with the death of Joe McKinnon, a long-time political activist and one of the godfathers of Spokane Valley incorporation.

McKinnon was the director of the former Museum of Native American Culture before serving as the Spokane chairman for Dixy Lee Ray’s successful gubernatorial campaign in 1976. After she won, he served as Ray’s Eastern Washington representative, a position that hadn’t existed previously. McKinnon, who later worked as a Realtor, was a lifelong Democrat active in party leadership, although that didn’t keep him from working with staunch Republicans in the 1980s and 1990s on various proposals to incorporate the growing suburban area east of the city of Spokane into its own municipality.

“He always had his finger on the pulse of Spokane,” said Kay McGlockin, a longtime friend and political ally said last week.

“If he was your friend, he was your friend for life,” she said. When she was in the hospital recovering from cancer, he visited her every day and later would make daily phone calls in which he would impart two or three tidbits of information.

Political reporters, too, relied on McKinnon for those tidbits, and for conversations punctuated by jokes and his high-pitched laugh. “Christmas Joe” was a member of the Spokane Association of Realtors for over 30 years and helped organize the Independent Brokers Christmas Party for years. The Joe McKinnon Christmas Spirit Award was established in his honor in 2019 due to his amazing Christmas spirit. He is greatly missed.

McKinnon, 81, beat non-Hodgkins lymphoma but struggled with asthma and other respiratory ailments, she said. He died December 17; a Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, February 25, 2023 at 11am at the Holy Cross Cemetery; 7200 N. Wall Street, Spokane. A Reception will be held on Saturday, February 25 from 2pm-4pm at the Hemmingson Center at Gonzaga; 702 W. Desmet Ave, 2nd floor NW corner, Spokane.