Gaye LeBaron
| Gaye LeBaron | |
|---|---|
| Born | Gaye Theresa Andrews 1935 (age 81–82) Humboldt County, California |
| Occupation | Newspaper columnist, local historian |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | United States |
| Education | B. A. English and history, University of California, Berkeley |
| Subject | Local history, community events, local politics |
| Notable works |
Santa Rosa: A Nineteenth Century Town (1985) Santa Rosa: A Twentieth Century Town (1993) (as co-author) |
| Notable awards | Sonoma County Woman of the Year, 2015 |
| Years active | 1957–present |
| Spouse | John LeBaron |
| Children | 2 |
Gaye Theresa LeBaron (born 1935) is an American newspaper columnist, author, teacher, and local historian of Sonoma County, California. She wrote more than 8,000 columns for The Press Democrat from 1961 until her semi-retirement in 2001. She also co-authored two books on the history of Santa Rosa, California.
Gaye Andrews was born in a small town by the Eel River in Humboldt County, California. She moved with her mother to her stepfather's home in Boyes Hot Springs, Sonoma County, when she was 14. She was named for her father, Guy Andrews, who died when she was seven.
She graduated from Sonoma Valley High School. She then attended Santa Rosa Junior College and transferred to the UC Berkeley, earning her B.A. in English and history.
She commented on things that make us angry, like the homes rising on the ridges around Santa Rosa, and the seasonal beauty of Sonoma County – mustard in spring vineyards and, in the fall, the brilliant yellow of the ginkgo trees along McDonald Avenue.
During her college years, she interned at The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa for three summers. She planned to teach high school in Redding after graduation, but when a staff position opened at the newspaper in September 1957, she opted to take that instead. Initially she worked as a general assignment reporter. She wrote her first column for the November 23, 1959 issue, and in 1961 became the official community columnist. Between 1970 and 1974 she stayed home to raise her children, then renewed her daily column until her semi-retirement in January 2001. As of 2004 she was writing two Sunday columns a month.
By 2001, LeBaron had produced more than 8,000 columns for The Press Democrat, ranging from human interest to cultural events to ethnic history to local politics. At one point she published six columns a week. She was considered the "premier columnist" of the paper, and a readership survey confirmed that hers was "the most popular feature in the paper". She became a local celebrity. She was even mentioned by a fictional character in Greg Sarris' 1998 novel Watermelon Nights:
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