The Menlo Park-based Almanac reports that lots of familiar faces turned out Sunday at the Portola Valley Town Center to fete veteran reporter Marion Softky at a celebration marking her 40th year of writing for that paper. Colleagues, local dignitaries, council members, environmental leaders and family members mingled and shared stories about Marion’s long career reporting the Midpeninsula and its people. A sidebar chronicles her career:

Ms. Softky’s first reporting assignment was covering a meeting of the Portola Valley school board in the Little Red Schoolhouse. She jumped at the opportunity to switch to covering Portola Valley Town Council meetings. Over the years, she has covered Portola Valley, Woodside, Menlo Park and, a key interest, development issues in the county.

“Working at The Almanac has been a gift to me because of the people I’ve met and the experiences I’ve had,” she says during an interview in her apartment at The Sequoias in Portola Valley.

(Photo: Softky in front of the Country Almanac office on Alameda de las Pulgas in west Menlo Park. Photo by Marjan Sadoughi.)