Bidding a 'long good-bye'

A few weeks ago we threw open the doors of the Sonoma County Museum, published a notice in the newspaper and invited readers to toast Gaye LeBaron's remarkable run as a daily columnist.

More than 500 people turned out to wish her well, continuing what one of her friends calls "the long good-bye." The outpouring began in January when Gaye announced that after 45 years and more than 8,000 columns she was retiring. Although she will continue with two Sunday columns a month, her voice has changed from a daily habit to an occasional counterpoint.

And readers have made it abundantly clear that they will miss beginning their day with Gaye's column - once churned out at a rate of six a week - almost as much as they will miss the woman who became our conscience and storyteller.

Her story is best told through the range of people who dashed between the showers that Sunday to honor Gaye at her museum reception. Her high school gym teacher came, as did the best man at her wedding. Pearl Harbor survivors, whose story she helped keep alive, brought an American flag. The Japanese Americans, whose stories of internment she also told, brought a proclamation. There were old-time ranchers next to environmental crusaders. Sonoma County's leading philanthropist was there, along with a man Gaye had written about when he was in rehab at Lytton Springs. He came to introduce his bride. A survivor of the Bataan Death March came too, as did a British war bride and countless others who had appeared in the column.

Gaye's great gift is that she saw a story in each of these people - and relished the telling.

Her colleagues at the newspaper turned out as well, from the retired police reporter in his longhorn bolo tie to the last society editor, now 91. Theirs is a special respect, born of a long and close view of what it takes to write that many columns that well. It was in the newsroom that Gaye might have come closest to the teaching job she trained for. From her, we all learned about writing, reporting and cultivating sources. But most of all she taught us about the role a newspaper should play in a community.

There will be another party Saturday night, this time a gala dinner to benefit the Sonoma County Museum. It is the last of "the long good-bye," the one we really don't want to say. To help us, then, we've gathered your wishes and Gaye's words in this book of tribute.