Mickey Canan Howard, longtime resident of Queen Anne, passed away May 3 after a brief illness.
She was 82.
Mickey was born in North Dakota to Abram and Anna Ratzlaff. In 1942 she moved to Washington, D.C., to work for the Civil Service Commission. There she met her first husband, Donald J. Canan, of Seattle. After Mickey and Don were married in 1945, they moved to Seattle where they raised their family.
A few years after Don's death in 1988 Mickey was fortunate to meet Phil Howard, who became her second husband. Mickey and Phil divided their time between their homes in Indio, Calif., and Seattle.
In 1953 Mickey began work at the Queen Anne/Magnolia News. Her hours were part-time at first, and most of the work was done from her home. However, as the paper grew and changed ownership, Mickey began to work full-time and eventually became manager of the office. She was very creative, and with the help of her team of co-workers she continually worked to make the paper one of the best. Her creativity stood out in every issue, but especially in the 50th Edition of the newspaper. She spent countless hours searching for artwork, stories and information, and recruited many local businesses to advertise to support the issue. Mickey retired in 1986 after 32-plus years.
She was someone who rarely sat still. An excellent seamstress, in the early years of her marriage Mickey sewed to support the family, and for many years she made her own clothes and those of her children and grandchildren. In later years she excelled at dressing her antique doll collection in the beautiful, handmade outfits she created.
Mickey loved to travel. She spent many years camping with Don and her children throughout the western United States and Canada. She also traveled abroad - Europe, South America, Russia and Singapore. Several of her trips were to London and Paris to search for antique trimmings and fabric for her doll clothes. One special journey was with Phil, to visit family and friends in England and Scotland.
Gardening was another of Mickey's hobbies. Her rose and flower gardens were beautiful throughout the years. When she decided to expand her vegetable garden, she planted much more than she could ever use herself, but loved sharing the bounty with family, friends and neighbors. The freezer and shelves were always packed with goodies from the garden: jams, fruits, breads and vegetable soups that she shared with others.
As busy as Mickey was raising her family and working, she always found time to help others. If she heard someone needed help, she was on the phone to gather support. If she heard someone was in need of a job or needed some extra work, she helped find it. She recruited neighborhood high-school kids to fill part-time positions at the paper or help with any extra work even without prior experience. When she discovered a bakery was throwing day-old bread into a Dumpster at the close of business, she arranged to pick up the bread herself and deliver it to a local food bank.
In recent years she made Christmas door swags, with a percentage of the sales going to support the Queen Anne Helpline and provide her grandchildren with spending money. In Indio, Mickey kept busy at the local school, helping children with their math and English; she also took a lead in the quilting group at the local senior center and assisted with projects at church. Here in Seattle she belonged to the St. Agnes Guild at St. Dunstan's Church in Shoreline and kept busy helping with their various projects. Her most recent ventures were to gather supplies and make Christmas stockings for the troops in Iraq. She recruited many local groups to help with providing supplies, cash and the sewing of the stockings. Mickey cared deeply for those fighting for our country.
There aren't enough words to describe what a wonderful person Mickey was. She will be deeply missed by her family and friends.
Mickey is survived by her husband Phil Howard; her children, Mike (Mary) and Tim (Beverly) Canan, and Kelley (Tom) Wood; Phil's children, Ian and Steve (Casey) Howard, and Lynne Harned; grandchildren Chris and Steve (Dawn) Canan, Collin and Tracey Wood; step-grandchildren Darby (Jeremy) Broyles, Marcy Lopez, Kyle Harned, Kent and Kendra Howard; and great-grandchildren Ellette Broyles, Jack Canan and Mykayla Iverson.
At Mickey's request, no services will be held.
Because Mickey loved animals, remembrances may be made to Pa-sado's Safe Haven, an animal sanc-tuary dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of dogs, cats and farm animals - P.O. Box 171, Sultan, WA, 98294 or at www.pasadosafehaven. org[[In-content Ad]]
