Valle sprinkles columns with wit, wisdom

SANDPOINT — While searching for Valle Novak’s house, an older gentleman walking down Schweitzer Road responded to this writer’s query about locating her home:

“Valle Novak lives in this neighborhood?

“Wow. I didn’t know that. She is famous.

“Everyone knows Valle,” he said.

And don’t they?

Her face is familiar for so many reasons. Her photo is featured with her weekly column in the Sunday/Monday Bee and has been there as a contributing writer since 1983 when Clare Marley and subsequently Chris Bessler presided as editor respectively, before the late Pete Thompson sold the newspaper to Duane Hagadone, making her the longest-running writer for Sandpoint’s paper of record. Valle knew Duane in high school when she was the editor of the society page in Coeur d’Alene at age 17, and he was the copy boy.

“I liked the old days (at the Bee) best,” she said, when we covered society events “such as fashion shows and weddings.”

Valle recently turned 90 and she doesn’t foresee stopping her Country Chef and Weekend Gardener columns, or, for that matter, her bird-watching, her gardening, her cooking, her reading. “Am I supposed to die now?” she asked, rhetorically, and laughed. When people think of living a long life, they sometimes think of Sarah in the Old Testament, who had a child at 90. Possibly because Sarah mistreated her maidservant, Valle said, “I never liked Sarah in the Bible--that old bat,” she said.

Valle has joie de vivre, the French phrase for joy of living—joy in conversation, joy in eating and in all facets of life and she is aptly named Valle Joy Novak.

Valle Novak is one-of-a-kind; her speech is filled with color and allusion to historical events, foreign lands and cultures, ornithology, and it is often startlingly descriptive. After all, she has led many tours abroad with Sandpoint residents, and has floated down the Nile. She is never without her colorful lipstick, not one day. “Even if the house caught fire, I would first put on lipstick before escaping,” she said.

She is an interesting blend of charm, folksy humor, wit, worldly sophistication, and looks at events in her life through spiritual lenses, “because we are all one,” she said. She prays a lot, and loves Jesus.

Her upbringing in Chilco, where her father, Grant Riesland, taught her about flora and fauna, and her later life in the north woods, has informed her interest in native plants; she occasionally uses what some people refer to as “weeds” in her cooking.

“Growing up in the 1930s, I accepted that pigweed or lamb’s quarter was a delightful green vegetable, that purslane…was great in soups and stews and that dandelion greens were a salad standby,” she wrote in her Weekend Gardener column on January 26 of this year. She also wrote that her paternal grandmother made tansy cakes in the early 1900s and put tansy on the dog’s bed to ward off fleas.

Even if she is alone, Valle sets a beautiful table with nice silverware to create a dining “experience” each day. Coming from a long line of Prussian cooks, she is innovative, often using what she has to create a delicious meal. “I love butter beans. I just fricasseed some Swiss chard and sautéed sliced leeks in butter. I drained the chard in a colander and then added the beans dotted with butter and a little balsamic and Holy Mother of God!” she said.

Underappreciated and underused herbs Valle recommends include tarragon (pairs well with eggs and vegetables) and fennel. “I am crazy about fennel. People should use both of those more often,” she said.

She lived in Coeur d’Alene from age 6-34, where she was involved in many community activities and raised children with her husband. She lived in Spokane for nearly 10 years in the 60s. “I started out writing about society and arts at the Spokesman-Review and I wrote programs for the brand-new Public Broadcasting Station. She led the public relations campaign for the United Crusade of Spokane County, and later as a reporter for the Daily Bee, she worked with the Lion’s Club to draw attention to the annual Toys for Tots drive--for nearly a quarter of a century.

Valle, a Master Gardener, worked with the founder and her dear friend, the late Lois Wythe on what would be the Kinnikinick Native Plants Society. And then, when Gene Tomt was retiring from his position as CEO of Bonner General Hospital in 2003, he asked Valle to help take on the healing garden, a quarter-acre lot next to the hospital grounds, on behalf of the hospital and Bonner Community Hospice. Valle created the rose garden next to the heated pathways, designed low enough for those in wheelchairs to enjoy the fragrances.

When she lived on Wrenco Loop beginning in 1980, she volunteered at the food bank, then at the community hall, and helped in establishing the first Panhandle Animal Shelter. She worked with Judy Heraper, Natalie Ednie, Bobby Huguenin, Sydne Van Horne and the Community Assistance League to launch the Festival of Sandpoint. “I’ve always wanted to do some good,” she said.

And she has. In 1996, she was named a Woman of Wisdom for her community service. In June, 1997, she received a certificate of recognition and commendation from then Governor Phil Batt for “Outstanding Achievement Serving the People of Idaho” in the fields of art and in service to the community.

On March 24, 2007, then Mayor Ray Miller signed a proclamation naming it “Valle Novak Day” in sincere gratitude for service to the community-at-large. This was presented by the Lion’s Club for 24 years’ work with Toys for Tots.

Valle doesn’t seem to censor herself, and at 90, she doesn’t have to. In her gardening columns she manages to insert her opinions about current issues in Sandpoint if they impact animal and plant life. Here’s one from her March 15 column: “Speaking of bug and worm-eaters, I wonder how the resident ospreys at Memorial Field are going to cope with artificial turf spread beneath their nests? Whenever Triton and Marina (my names for the osprey couple closest to the entry of the Festival at Sandpoint) — and many different kinds of songbirds—fly down to scratch up a healthy angleworm for their fledglings, they’ll be in for a big surprise! It’s a travesty too, for the absorbing of spilled drinks, dropped ice creams, spit, baby wee-wee and other natural crowd waste that the underground life beneath a healthy lawn would neatly dispose of. Now, it will just lay there, benefiting no one and repugnant and unhealthy to boot. Who can question the aims of the money-spenders?”

But Valle’s operating principle is kindness. Young co-workers of Valle’s in the 1980s recall her recommending what she had learned from life experience: kindness is what makes a relationship successful.

Her children, Paul, Diane, Grant, Shelley, Keith, and Olivia threw a 90th birthday party for her on March 5 at Arlo’s.

“Never in my long life have I ever been so thrilled, felt so honored, or been so affected,” she wrote in the March 15 gardening column.

Valle has no plans to stop writing her columns. She does not plan to stop feeding the visiting birds and creating inventive dinners, all while wearing brightly colored lipstick.

Susan Drinkard writes features for the Daily Bee. She can be reached at susanadiana@icloud.com.