2 to be inducted Monday

Longtime community member and volunteer Aleene Howser and Daily Record Managing Editor Anita Miller have been named the 2018 inductees into the San Marcos Women’s Hall of Fame.

They will be honored for their meaningful contributions to the San Marcos community at a reception Monday from 6  to 8 p.m. in the City Park Rec. Hall.

The public is invited, and light refreshments will be served.

Aleene Howser

Volunteering is a full-time job for Aleene Howser. 

When she retired from Texas State University in 2012 after 40 years of working in the Alkek Library, Aleene decided to spend her days volunteering in the community and giving back to her church and others. Now logging between 60 and 80 volunteer hours each week, she has clearly met her objective. 

One of the first places Aleene turned her attention as a volunteer was the Central Texas Medical Center. Joining the CTMC Auxiliary in 2012, she began working a shift every week. To date, she has given more than 4,400 hours of service to the hospital without compensation. She has served in virtually every leadership position available in the Auxiliary, currently offering guidance as president.

Belinda Gardner, coordinator of volunteer services at CTMC, wrote, “Aleene often works over and above what is expected, simply because she sees a need. She is always smiling and positive and willing to do whatever is needed to assist or comfort others. She is very energetic and works hard to see that all of the patient needs are met to the very best of her scope of service at CTMC.”

Every Friday, Aleene can be found at the San Marcos Tourist Information Center, welcoming travelers to Texas, San Marcos and the hill country. She has clocked more than 700 hours of service there since 2013. “She is the first impression for many of our guests and does an exceptional job of making them feel at home,” said Denise Pardo, destination services manager for the San Marcos CVB. 

A dedicated member of St. John Catholic Church, Aleene serves nearly every Sunday as a Minister of Communion. She takes communion to the homebound, is a money counter, contributes to the St. John’s Guild and their many community projects, and is active in the St. Vincent de Paul Society, serving as secretary for three years. She also is co-coordinator of the church’s Meals on Wheels group, taking nutritious meals to the elderly and disabled.

 “Aleene is not a high profile person in the community,” wrote Sawndra Jones who serves with Aleene on the Ladies Guild at St. John Catholic Church. “She does not put herself forward in the limelight, she does not expect recognition or reward for anything she does. In her genuinely unselfish way, she simply steps up to serve wherever she sees a need. She represents one of those ‘quiet heroes’ who too often go unheralded. These are the kind of women who glue a community together and who inspire others to do what they can.”

What else does Aleene fit into her volunteer schedule? She helps the San Marcos Fire Department with their open houses and fundraisers like Fill the Boot and pancake breakfasts. She helps with Pink Heals projects to benefit the American Cancer Association. You’ll find her wrapping gifts at Christmastime for the San Marcos Police Department’s Blue Santa program. Additionally, as a resident of the Hills of Hays Subdivision, she assists with their National Night Out and takes care of other needs that arise in the neighborhood.

 One of her Hills of Hays friends, Joan Demetriadis, wrote, “As a neighbor of Aleene for many years, I can personally attest to her living out the command to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” She exemplifies this virtue. If anyone deserves the nomination to the San Marcos Women’s Hall of Fame, it is Aleene.”

As Belinda Gardner concluded in her nomination letter, “Aleene is a treasure for San Marcos and serves with a passion that amazes all who know her.”

Anita Miller

Journalists are essentially story tellers, and no one has been sharing the stories of San Marcos longer than Anita Miller.

As Managing Editor of the San Marcos Daily Record, Miller has outlasted dozens of reporters, dedicating herself to the city she came to 38 years ago after graduating from the University of Texas. Rising through the ranks at the Daily Record, Miller started as a reporter, became news editor in 2000 and was named managing editor in 2015. As Melissa Millecam in her nomination letter wrote, “Anita’s love for the San Marcos community, the river, the people, local organizations and their challenges have inspired her to support their efforts by telling their stories — every day — in the newspaper.” 

In covering the life of the San Marcos community, Miller has helped open doors and create support for dozens of worthy causes. She makes sure events and needs make it into print and provides space for opinions and special columns about urgent issues. Among the organizations that have benefited from her efforts are the Hays Caldwell Women’s Center, the San Marcos River Foundation, Southside Community Center, the LBJ Museum of San Marcos, Centro Cultural Hispano de San Marcos, Summer in the Park, the San Marcos Public Library, and scores of other local churches, government agencies, non-profits and schools. 

Miller’s support for Gary Job Corps Center includes service on the Gary Community Relations Council. Patricia Lankford, director of the Center, cited Miller for her work in promoting the mission of the program and for giving Gary and any other social service agencies “a platform to inform the San Marcos community of the activities and needs of those affected.”

Often, what begins as an assignment for Miller becomes an opportunity for service. Once, for example, she was covering an event where two dogs happened to encounter a porcupine. Miller covered the event and then spent hours at the veterinarian’s office helping pull porcupine needles out of the poor puppies. Another time, when EMS responded to an emergency call, Miller, as one of the first on the scene, ended up holding the IV bag for the medics. She later followed up with the victim to confirm he had recovered. 

Miller has also been among the first to offer assistance when natural disasters or other crises have struck our community. Over the years, she has not only covered floods, tornadoes and fires as a reporter but has helped with clean-up and recovery efforts as a citizen. She brings attention to issues affecting our San Marcos River and contributes her time at river clean-ups. In fact, she was recognized a few years ago with an Environmental Reporting Award by the San Marcos River Foundation. 

When Miller first started at the Record, her job was processing black and white film and making prints in a darkroom. The technology has changed quite a bit since then, but Miller has never ceased chronicling through her photographs the transition of San Marcos from small town to sprawling city. And, as Dianne Wassenich observed, “she has done a lot of that on her own time, more as an artist than a journalist. She has worked day and night and weekends for her whole life here, covering stories and volunteering her time for the causes that she cares about and offering help to those in the community who need it.”

As an editor, Miller would no doubt prefer to cover a story than be the subject of one. But as one of the 2018 inductees into the San Marcos Women’s Hall of Fame, she will have to let the focus be on her for once, allowing a grateful community to honor her for her compassion, responsiveness and commitment to action on their behalf.