Trump's run to POTUS spiced up the last of couple's 70 years

DESERT AIRE — According to election watchers, Donald Trump won the presidency last November because he attracted voters who had been discouraged over the last 30-40 years.

Two of those were Highline High School graduates Dolly Siegfried and her late husband Bill. They jumped aboard the Trump Train the minute he announced his run in the summer of 2015 and rode it all of the way.

“We thought our country was on the edge of a cliff,” said Dolly, who prayed for a Republican candidate who would fight.

Bill and Dolly believed the bottom of that cliff to be socialism or communism.

“He was sent just in time to rescue us,” Dolly said.

Dolly and Bill were high school sweethearts. They were married in 1946, shortly after her graduation from high school and Bill’s discharge from the Navy Air Corps.

Bill became a machinist, working in small shops and for the Boeing Company. He eventually took a job at Keyport Naval Base in Kitsap County. He also built or remodeled the homes in which the couple lived.

“He was a hard worker, and he played just as hard,” Dolly said.

One of the houses Bill built was on Mason Lake. There he taught the couple’s five children water sports, and they came to love the water as much as he did.

After Bill retired and all of the children were on their own, the Siegfrieds continued to have fun. They started spending winters in Palm Desert, Calif. Their winters featured line dancing, square dancing, swimming, water skiing and playing tennis. They eventually bought a second home in Palm Desert.

Church was not a part of the Siegfrieds’ lives for the first 25 years of marriage. They joined one their son Bill found and have been devout Christians ever since.

The Siegfrieds became sweethearts partly because of music. He played piano, and she sang in high school. After adopting a Christian life, they became church musicians wherever they lived. Often they were the entertainment at social gatherings.

“Music was the highlight of our lives,” Dolly said.

The life the Siegfrieds had together was punctuated by trips to Israel and China. It seemed the fun would never end.

Then in March of 2016, Bill felt an unusual pain in his back which turned out to be cancer. The prayerful couple’s prayers took on new meaning.

Meanwhile, the Siegfrieds had found a new way to have fun. They were seated in the living room when Donald Trump came down the escalator at Trump Tower in New York and announced his candidacy.

“When he came down that escalator, when he got serious, Bill and I rejoiced,” Dolly said. “He said the things we wanted to say.”

The Siegfrieds had been watching the 16 Republican candidates to that point and couldn’t see a fighter among them. One week they favored one, the next week another.

The Siegfrieds had no doubt after Trump jumped into the race. Almost immediately, Dolly engaged in politics like never before. She wrote Trump a brief letter of support and included a $20 bill.

“(You) were sent to be a type of savior,” she wrote. “You are the only one who can break up the establishment.”

Dolly received two Trump stickers in return. Her son, who lives across the street at Desert Aire, pasted one to his car. Dolly thought about placing the other near the door on her house, but she didn’t. She had gotten used to keeping her mouth shut and not speaking of her Republican leanings.

The Siegfrieds became political junkies. Their days brightened as they followed Trump by TV, Dolly on the couch, Bill on a hospital bed. They became more and more excited as Trump climbed the polls.

“Bill would say to put on the Trump channel,” Dolly said.

There was no Trump channel, but nearly every channel had become a Trump channel. Dolly knew what Bill meant: any channel that was covering Trump positively at the time. There was nothing else on TV he wanted to watch.

Dolly read “The Art of the Deal” by Trump. She also read a book about Trump written by Phyllis Schlafly.

“We were just praying our heads off the last days of the campaign,” Dolly said.

The night of the election, Nov. 8, the Siegfrieds tried to stay awake for the decision, but both fell asleep. When they awoke, Hillary Clinton was reading her concession speech.

“It was everything for us,” Dolly said.

At 90 years of age, Bill died of cancer on Jan. 6. He went peacefully, Dolly said.

“But before he died, he said, ‘I know I’m leaving you in good hands,’” she said.

Dolly, 88, was saddened by Bill’s passing, of course, but she’s pushing forward as Bill asked her to do. She believes the country is going in the right direction.

And she still watches the Trump channels every day.