Politics & Government
UPDATE: Videos Added of Millie Howie Ceremony
Long-time journalist and broadcasting trailblazer Millie Howie honored.
The Forum Room offered standing room only as more than 60 people crowded in to celebrate the life of Millie Howie.
In addition, the was rededicated in honor of Howie. Howie, a well-known wine journalist and founder of the wine library, passed away Apr. 5, 2011.
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“The Sonoma County Wine Library, Millie Howie, Founder,” is the new appellation of the library, housed inside the Healdsburg Branch of the library.
Seven speakers eulogized Howie, each covering a portion of her life’s work. Rev. Marvin Bowers provided opening and closing remarks.
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Ted Stier, Rutgers University professor and dean emeritus, spoke of her work with the Wine Library Associates. He described Howie as "organized, reliable and tough." Stier is a past-president of that organization.
Long-time fellow journalist and Howie’s editor, Rollie Atkinson, described her as an "editor's dream." Howie served a 30-year tenure as the writer of Wine Words for the Sonoma West Times and Windsor Times.
Howie, portrayed by as having a “will of burnished titanium,” was instrumental in the creation of the wine library. Before that, she was a trailblazing broadcaster and writer for KGO-TV.
In addition, Howie was eulogized by long-time friend and Healdsburg businessman, Mike Fairchild; president and CEO of KRCB, Nancy Dobbs; and Jan Mettler of Boss Dog Marketing.
Linda Ramey, one of Howie’s two daughters, read the poem Things Shouldn’t Be so Hard and talked about growing up with a writer-mother. “She was a stickler for grammar,” said Ramey.
Ramey spoke of Howie’s whacky sense of humor, love of animals, and her household attire, “big, fluffy slippers, and an old, zip-up, velour bathrobe.”
Rev. Bowers, in the closing, said he considered himself Howie’s “chauffeur and spearbearer.”
At the reception following the celebration, a patio design by Gardenworks was on display depicting the plans for re-doing the patio to commemorate Howie.
Simons also announced a new wine librarian will begin work on July 1. John Haupt is currently a music librarian at Southern Methodist University. Simons described him as a “wine geek kind of guy and as “puppyish in his enthusiasm.”
