Howard D. McCain
Marriages
Marilla Reynolds McCain - April 28, 1933
Burial Details
Obituaries
Eagle Valley Enterprise - September 19, 1991
HOWARD McCAIN DIES AT 84. Former Enterprise Publisher, Citizen of the Year had Deep Eagle Roots.
Howard D. McCAIN, former co-publisher of The Eagle Valley Enterprise for 23 years, died in his Eagle home Friday, Sept. 13 after a long illness. He was 84.
Mr. McCAIN was born Sept. 22, 1906 in Leadville, the son of Delmar W. and Bertha (Miller) McCAIN. He was the grandson of a pioneering railroad family who arrived in Leadville in 1880. He attended schools in Denver, where his family lived for a time, later moving to Eagle to live with his Aunt Gertie and Uncle Jesse SHERMAN on their ranch east of town. He was instrumental in bringing the first radio reception to Eagle.
As a young man, Mr. McCAIN worked on the Sherman Ranch, later known as the Lloyd Ranch. He worked for a time for the MAYER family during the 1920's, delivering milk to Eagle on a horse-drawn wagon. He also worked at the Polar Star Mine in Fulford, for Holy Cross Electric, and at New Jersey Zinc in Gilman, where he was an electrician.
Mr. McCAIN married Marilla REYNOLDS on April 8, 1935 [headstone says April 28, 1933]. Mrs. McCAIN's father, Adrian "Ade" REYNOLDS, owned The Eagle Valley Enterprise. When Adrian died in 1949, Howard and Marilla took over the newspaper and worked together as co-publishers for the next 23 years. Mrs. McCAIN died in 1972. The REYNOLDS and McCAIN families owned and operated The Enterprise for a total of 54 years.
According to Pam SCHULTZ, McCAIN's daughter, it was not her father's idea to enter the newspaper business, but he joined his wife in the operation. Mr. McCAIN performed all the newspaper and commercial printing for the business and the old lineotype machine he used is presently showcased at the Eagle Historical Museum in Eagle.
'Every Thursday he was up there, running that big, old press," SCHULTZ recalled. "I think he enjoyed most just seeing the end product when it was done."
The Enterprise was a family operation under the McCAINs. SCHULTZ and both her sisters worked at the office with their parents.
"I was small enough then that what "said Richard McCAIN, SCHULTZ' brother. "I dragged the mail sacks down to the post office sometimes."
Richard McCAIN recalled the frantic pace of the newspaper operation.
"They (his mother and father) were always looking toward Thursday. Friday he'd be cleaning the press and getting ready for next week.
"He was always in the back corner. That's where his work station was."
During non-business hours, Richard McCAIN remembered his father's fishing buddies. The sons of these men thought their dads had a special fishing club because they would often head out with their poles but without their boys.
"Those guys were always out on the river," he said.
Mr. McCAIN was chosen as Eagle County's Citizen of the Year in 1980. He was an avid fisherman, and enjoyed travel, dancing, gardening, and carpentry.
Survivors are: one son, Sherman Richard McCAIN of Eagle; three daughters: Patricia Ann CERISE of Glenwood Springs; Geraldine LEONARD of Phoenix, Ariz., and Pamela Joan SCHULTZ of Gypsum; one sister, Grace STARK of Riverside, Calif., and 11 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.
Memorial services were held on Tuesday, Sept. 17 at the Eagle Senior Center. Mr. James NIMON officiated. Interment of ashes was at the Eagle Cemetery. Memorials may be made to the Eagle County Nursing Service, PO Box 86, Eagle, CO.,81631, to the Eagle County Museum, c/o Mary Ann WILSON, First Bank of Eagle County, PO Box 567, Eagle, CO,81631, or the Western Eagle County Ambulance Service, PO Box 1077, Eagle, CO, 81631. Farnum-Holt Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel page 7 A - September 14, 1991
