Lachelle Martin Interview
She stands at exactly 5’4″ and has really short hair. She has style too, wearing the latest Nike shoes or sweat suits. Her gray patch sticks out from her hair, a family trait. They all have the gray patch. Wrinkles come up when she scrunches her forehead. Her voice does not match her face. It’s little deeper than you’d guess. She has a tattoo on her right shoulder of a bird.
Lachelle Martin was born on Monday, August 7, 1967 in San Jose, California. Lachelle has an older sister who was already out of the house when she was born. At the age of 10 years old, in July, 1976, Lachelle moved to Seattle, Washington. The first house Lachelle, her mom and stepfather moved into was on Beacon Hill, where she attended elementary school. Lachelle remembers when the ice cream man was around, she’d run outside and chase the truck till it stopped. Sometimes she’d sell them and make her some spare change.
Her role models are her mother and older sister because they always supported her. They were her educators and have always seen a positive thing in her life. In the Martin household, Lachelle’s mother was the person who was mostly in charge of making a decisions. Maybe they would talk it out, but her mother would make the final decision.
Lachelle had been in and out of school a lot because she had a lot of illnesses growing up and was always in the hospital. But she did attend Cleveland High School from her 9-12 grade years, and she graduated in 1986. Lachelle attended one year of college, but soon figured out it wasn’t for her.
Her first job was when she was in elementary. It was her 5th grade year and she had worked for her landlord by sweeping the laundry room up and making 5 dollars a week. Back then that was a lot of money. She has worked at a lot more places such as the Summer Youth Program and at a daycare where she was paid $3.35 per hour. One of her biggest jobs was being a bank teller at Bank of America for 7 years.
At the age of 23, on March 19, Lachelle went into labor with her first and only child Ashaunti. She wasn’t married or anything. She was actually a single mother. In 1992, Lachelle got a job with King County and has been there until this day.
Lachelle lives in condo in the Lakeridge community. They way she’d describe her community is a family oriented community of working class people. Lachelle has been on a lot of journeys in her life but has never given up and has always been positive about everything.
