Reporters' mentor at Daily Herald
AUDREY HOWARD | 1960-2008 Staff rallied around beloved assistant city editor after cancer diagnosis
As an assistant city editor at the Daily Herald, Audrey Howard did more than fix commas and correct misspellings in the stories written by her reporters.
She also was their mentor -- using an infectiously upbeat personality to guide and teach young reporters how best to cover the stories of Chicago's suburbs.
So when Ms. Howard was diagnosed with cancer in recent years, the reporters she liked to call her "kids" joined her family and friends in rallying around her.
T-shirts, buttons and ball caps were made. A group called "Howard's Heroes" was formed. And they joined together to raise research funds, including participating in the American Cancer Society Relay for Life in Mount Prospect.
"It was an amazing thing to see," Daily Herald managing editor Madeleine Doubek said of the newsroom's camaraderie. "People wanted to know what they could do. Could they bring meals or collect money or what."
Ms. Howard -- known for her friendly winks, quick wit and huge smile and described as "a protector, hero and pal" -- died Sunday morning in her Elgin home. She was 47.
"She was not only a phenomenal sister and a wonderful daughter, but she was also a great aunt," her sister Joan Wiegold said. "All of the kids in our family, the nieces and nephews, loved Aunt Ging."
"Ging" and "Ginger" -- from her middle name Virginia -- were some of Ms. Howard's many nicknames. She was also "Aud" and "Junior," the latter because her mother is also named Audrey.
Ms. Howard today was to celebrate 22 years of being together with Elisa Groh, whom she married in Canada, where same-sex marriages are legal.
Ms. Howard was raised in a tight-knit family in north suburban Wauconda. She graduated from Wauconda High School in 1978 and from the University of Illinois in 1982 with a bachelor's degree in journalism. But she was a journalist with an editor's eye long before that, her family said.
She cringed at grammatical errors on billboards and misspellings on restaurant menus and always served as the family wordsmith.
"In our family, if you ever had a question about a paper or something like that, you always called Ging," Wiegold said. "She would get phone calls from us at 3 o'clock in the morning when we couldn't come up with the right word for a paper in college. She was our thesaurus."
After college, Ms. Howard spent nearly 10 years as a reporter and copy editor at the Lerner Newspapers in Morton Grove. She joined the Daily Herald in 1993.
She was also an accomplished outfielder on her softball team, which also got behind her during her illness.
"I like to think all of these rallying gatherings really helped her to know and see just how many people loved her and were with her in spirit as she waged her fight," Doubek said.
Ms. Howard is also survived by her mother, Audrey Howard, brothers John and Paul, two sisters-in-law, two brothers-in-law, nieces and nephews.
Visitation will be from 3 to 7 p.m. today at Kisselburg-Wauconda Funeral Home, 235 N. Main St., Wauconda. A memorial service will be at 7 p.m.
