[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 37 (Tuesday, March 20, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E393]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E393]]



                         HONORING GAYE LeBARON

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MIKE THOMPSON

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 20, 2001

  Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize my 
good friend and a true Sonoma County legend, Gaye LeBaron.
  Ms. LeBaron is stepping down as a daily columnist with the Press 
Democrat newspaper in Santa Rosa after nearly 46 years with the paper.
  She began her career in journalism in 1951 as a correspondent with 
the Sonoma Index Tribune. She joined the Press Democrat as a student 
intern in 1955 and graduated to cub reporter in 1957. Over the years 
she has performed almost every job in the newsroom. She began writing 
her Press Democrat column in 1959 and it has since become a daily 
staple in the lives of thousands of Sonoma County readers.
  Gaye LeBaron embodies the county's collective memory. She has written 
on both events she has witnessed and experienced and on the county's 
colorful and more distant past.
  She co-authored a two-volume history of Santa Rosa and Sonoma County 
and edited a third volume on Sonoma County in the 19th Century. Her 
class on the History of Sonoma County at Santa Rosa Junior College is 
one of the most popular offerings each semester.
  To her colleagues at the paper, she was the newsroom's ``go-to-guy'' 
who could tell them when a highway opened, or how a local landmark got 
its name or whether an obituary should run on page one.
  To her readers she was an artist who painted broad word pictures of 
how the county once was and made us all feel part of the continuum of 
history.
  But there was another side to Gaye LeBaron. Many of her columns 
reflected her keen observations of the contemporary political and 
social landscape, often seen through the eyes of her acerbic informant, 
``Sam the Shark.'' Whether a literary device or Sonoma County's own 
``Deep Throat,'' Sam asked the questions that more dignified people 
perhaps would not and together Sam and Gaye stirred the debate and 
moved us forward.
  Mr. Speaker, Gaye LeBaron has received a multitude of awards and 
acknowledgments. She is revered in her community and is a giant in her 
profession. It is therefore fitting and proper that we honor her today 
for her long and distinguished career and for her many accomplishments.

                          ____________________