A Fond Farewell

Lynda Millner has represented Montecito Journal at myriad nonprofit events all over the Santa Barbara area for almost as long as Montecito Journal has been around, which is 27 years and counting: the paper was launched in the summer of 1995 and Lynda joined us shortly thereafter. She announced her retirement from “Seen Around Town” in last week’s issue and I for one (and I am no doubt speaking for all MJ fans and contributors) will miss the diligent coverage she has given to so many worthy events and the people who attend and put them on.

Lynda always made sure to highlight the honorees and the chairs first and foremost, and then the ardent backers and attendees, and rarely if ever got her facts wrong.

When Montecito Journal was founded (on a dime and a prayer) it could hardly afford to pay its contributors what they earned and deserved, so I, as then-owner of a restaurant in La Cumbre Plaza (Café Au Lait), “paid” Lynda with a coupon for a free meal at my family’s restaurant. Lynda accepted her gustatory wages with good grace and humor.

“I had always liked to dress up and wear fancy clothes, much to my mother’s chagrin,” she says in explanation of her love and desire to attend and cover so many memorable outings. Consequently, Lynda Millner was always dressed as elegantly as those in attendance.

As for her longevity, Ms. Millner proudly maintains that she “never missed a deadline” and laughs when she recounts that she began writing her column so long ago she did it on a yellow legal pad and “ended up with my husband, Don, turning it in on a laptop computer.”