The Laundry Room

Amanda King Stetson

Amanda Lucy West was born at the base hospital in RAF Lakenheath, Brandon, England, while her father was in his final tour of duty with the U.S. Army Air Forces. Her parents were Technical Sergeant Carl Jeremy West and the former Dorothea Lucy “Dotty” Fessenden. She was the second of her parents’ two children, but her older brother, Jay Christian “Christie” West, died as a baby during the 1949 polio epidemic.

Carl West separated from the USAAF when Amanda was two; the family moved to Arlington, Virginia, where she grew up. Amanda has no memory of living with her parents in England.

After graduating from high school, Amanda attended the University of Virginia on cheerleading and academic scholarships. She earned a B.S.Ed. in English Secondary Education (Literature Emphasis) in May 1972. At the beginning of her senior year at UVA, she met graduate student Joe King when he came to the writing center for tutoring and advice. Joe proposed over Christmas of that year and they were married in June 1972, shortly before he began attending Georgetown Law School.

Joe and Amanda had two sons: Phillip and Jamie, and Amanda devoted herself to her family as a homemaker and “PTA Mom.” She also coached Little League and was active in charity work. Unfortunately, the marriage foundered due to Joe’s frequent work-related absences and the divorce was finalized in mid-1982. The split was amicable and Amanda retained her married surname for the sake of her sons.

In October 1983, Lee Stetson inadvertently recruited her to the Agency, a shadowy governmental intelligence operation. Amanda had been looking for part-time work at the time; the Agency hired her as a civilian auxiliary and assistant to Lee. Although he resented working with her at first, over the next few years they became friends and partners. Already noted for her skills in lateral thinking, rapid analysis, and pattern recognition, Amanda was offered a full-time position as an agent trainee in October 1986.

By then, the relationship with Lee had turned personal. Lee and Amanda were married in Marion, Virginia, on February 13, 1987. In a cruel twist of fate, Amanda was caught in sniper crossfire on their honeymoon and spent the first few months of the marriage recuperating. She returned to the Agency full-time that May and finished her agent training the next month.

Although Amanda took French in high school, she did not retain it. As a part of her training with the Agency, Amanda studied Russian and was at functional capacity by Summer 1987. (She also regained functional capacity in French.) When a case experience during the Summer of 1987 suggested Arabic might be more beneficial, she switched to that instead.

Amanda’s father died in 1981. Her mother and her oldest son Phillip were killed in an automobile crash on October 1, 1987. When she was offered a position as a “cultural attaché” with the U.S. Embassy in London in mid-1988 (actually a covert counter-intelligence position with the Agency), she was happy to accept and viewed it as a fresh opportunity.

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Timeline

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Family Trees

• Davis-Stetson-Clayton
• Fessenden-West
• Hamilton
• King

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Gallery

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Lee Stetson is the son of Matthew Davis Stetson and the former Jennifer Kay Hamilton. He grew up believing his parents met while his mother was a part of the British delegation during the NATO Treaty Talks; however, in his mid-thirties, he learned his parents actually met while working as intelligence operatives during World War II.

While he has warm memories of his parents, unfortunately, Lee was orphaned on September 18, 1955, at the age of five. He was primarily raised by his paternal half-uncle, Colonel (Ret.) Robert Clayton, USAF. He primarily grew up on Air Force bases located around the world, including Guam, Germany, and several places in the United States.

Lee is fluent in French and Dutch, and has functional operating capacity in German and Russian. He also has basic communication skills in Italian, Vietnamese, and Urdu.

After his graduation from Ramstein High School, Lee attended two different universities on football scholarships. His primary major at the time was partying, and this was reflected in his grades; both schools placed him on academic suspension after one semester. In early 1969, he received notice that his draft deferral would be revoked as a result of the second suspension. Wanting some say in what happened next, Lee enlisted in the United States Army. He served a tour of duty in Vietnam, flying helicopters for Army Intelligence.

Matured somewhat by his time in the military, Lee returned to school as a more serious using GI Bill benefits. He eventually ended up at the University of Virginia as a history/political science major. However, in 1973, Harry V. Thornton recruited Lee to the Agency, a shadowy government intelligence service. Lee left UVA in good standing as a rising senior and finished the remaining requirements at the University of Maryland University College, graduating from there in 1975.

One of Lee’s earliest assignments with the Agency was with Paul Barnes’ Oz Network. During this assignment, he received the code name “Scarecrow” (a reference to the Wizard of Oz character), which became something of a nickname. During the next decade, Lee matured from a self-described hotheaded young agent into a seasoned field operative, taking on increasing levels of responsibility and leadership. He was especially noted for his skills with security system setups.

In October 1983, while on assignment out of the Agency’s Washington, DC, office, Lee inadvertently recruited Amanda King as a part-time, civilian assistant. Although he initially resented her presence, over the next few years they eventually became friends and partners. The relationship turned personal in 1986, shortly before Amanda was hired full-time as an agent trainee. Lee and Amanda were married on February 13, 1987, in Marion, Virginia.

Not quite a year later, Lee suffered a disabling injury while working on another case. This prompted a move from field operations to administration. In mid-1988 he was offered a position as the Agency liaison with MI6, stationed out of the London office.

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Timeline

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Family Trees

• Davis-Stetson-Clayton
• Fessenden-West
• Hamilton

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Gallery

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Francine Desmond

Francine Desmond was born in Seattle, Washington, to a computer scientist (her father) and an interior decorator (her mother). While her parents had hoped to have more children, they were unable to conceive following Francine’s birth. As a result, Francine became as much her father’s “son” as she is her mother’s daughter. She was raised with high standards of excellence, which led to both high competence and a bit of insecurity. She also developed a fiercely independent spirit and has a tendency toward overachieving.

Francine took some secretarial courses in high school, but her strongest abilities were in language. She excelled in French and also began learning some Japanese. She began college as a languages major with the intention to translate at the U.N., but during college developed an interest in international relations. She received her B.A. in that field from the University of Washington in 1975.

She is now fluent in French, Japanese, Dari, and Russian, and has functional capacity in Mandarin, German, Italian, and Amharic. She has basic communication skills in several other languages.

After college, Francine was admitted to the prestigious Carnegie Mellon Institute for Politics and Strategy, completing an M.S. in Strategic International Relations. The final semester of that program was completed in Washington, DC, allowing her to begin making contacts in the federal government. Upon graduation, she was offered a position with the State Department.

Seeking better opportunities for promotion, Francine transferred to the Agency as a field agent in April 1980. Shortly thereafter, she met Jonathan Stone and the two were soon romantically involved. Jonathan proposed on New Year’s Eve 1981, and they were scheduled to be married in June 1982. However, on the morning of the wedding, he was nowhere to be found. Francine was left nearly literally standing at the altar, and never got so much as a note or a phone call from him.

Francine was promoted to the Assistant Director of Field Operations in the Fall of 1983, working with and apprenticing under Billy Melrose.

In May 1987, Jonathan Stone came back into Francine’s life. Although they were both wary at the beginning, they rekindled their relationship and were engaged again that fall, around the same time she was partnered with junior agent Nancy Zusterakos.

Unfortunately, they didn’t marry this time, either; Jonathan was killed by the Ansar al-Safa terrorist group in early 1988. Francine did not handle the situation well, and was sanctioned for her behavior at work. Recognizing that she was no longer immediately promotable, Melrose instead assigned Francine and Zeta to the Q-Bureau following Lee and Amanda Stetson’s departures.

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Appears In

• No Hellos, No Goodbyes
• Canonical Series (88 Episodes)
• Twins Lounge
• Stay With Me
• Standing in the Dark
• All That Mattered

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Timeline

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Billy Melrose

William Albert Melrose was born into the historic Black Catholic community of Baltimore, Maryland, on September 19, 1929, as the youngest of three children. Coming of age during the postwar industrial boom, he drifted through a series of low-paying jobs after high school while attempting to establish himself as a professional saxophonist in the city’s nightclub scene. Billy would later joke that, much to his parents’ dismay, he had never even been an altar boy.

His life changed in early 1950, when his then-girlfriend became pregnant shortly after turning eighteen. Though both families discouraged marriage, Billy refused to abandon his responsibilities and enlisted in the Army to support his child. Following Basic Training, he was sent to Korea, where exposure to martial arts and their philosophical traditions profoundly shaped him. By the end of his service, the once-rootless young man had matured considerably. Although his former girlfriend eventually married and his son was raised primarily by a stepfather, Billy remained actively involved in his child’s life.

Despite facing delays in accessing his G.I. Bill benefits due to institutional discrimination, Billy earned a B.A. with a double major in History and Philosophy from Morgan State University before attending Howard University Law School. There he studied under prominent legal figures including James Nabrit, Jr., Frank D. Reeves, and Spottswood Robinson III. After graduating, he clerked for the U.S. Attorney’s Office and appeared headed toward a Department of Justice career before a chance encounter with Harry V. Thornton in 1963 resulted in a recruitment offer from the Agency.

Billy ultimately chose the Agency in part because it offered greater opportunity for advancement than the Justice Department, despite the racial barriers that still existed there. In 1964, he married Jeanette “Jeannie” Baxter, with whom he later had two daughters, Sandy and Tammy.

Although highly capable in the field, Billy’s reluctance to accept lengthy overseas assignments while raising a family gradually pushed him toward administration. He rose steadily through the Agency ranks, serving as Field Supervisor and later as Assistant Director of Internal Affairs before becoming Director of Field Section in 1981.

Outside official records, Billy was known as a fixture of the Washington jazz scene, an accomplished aikido practitioner who reached the rank of sandan, and a Meritorious Fourth-Degree Knight of St. Peter Claver. Though he struggled with languages, he possessed an exceptional ability to read people and was widely regarded as one of the Agency’s finest judges of character.

As Director of Field Section, Billy developed a reputation for being demanding but deeply fair and protective of the agents under his command. Though he rarely sought recognition, he was considered one of the most effective leaders the Agency ever produced.

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Appears In

• Canonical Series (88 Episodes)
• Down the Long Hills
• Stay With Me
• Standing in the Dark
• All That Mattered

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Timeline

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Appears In

• Canonical Series (1 Episode)
• All That Mattered

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