Margaret Howell

By Marcy Rein

Friends and co-workers at Powell’s Books in Portland, Ore. are grieving the loss of Margaret Howell, who died July 29 at age 32.

Howell had worked at Powell’s for nine years, mostly as an e-mail runner, one of the people who collect books from the store shelves to fill Internet orders. She belonged to ILWU warehouse, retail and allied workers Local 5.

Local 5 President Kristi Lovato talked about a day when Howell was leaving the house to go to work and noticed a baby sparrow that had fallen out of its nest. Though she was already in trouble for tardiness, she took the bird to the Audubon Society. The people there sent her to another vet. Despite that vet’s best efforts, the bird died—and she was four hours late that day.

"Margaret was a very kind person," Zach Ellis said. It didn’t show in heroic actions but in everyday ways. "If we were e-mail running in a room together she’d ask me, ‘What sections do you hate?’ and take those.

"She was very low-key but there was always something mischievous in her eyes," he said.

People felt drawn to Howell by her combination of vulnerability, intelligence and humor, Lori Blumenthal said. She was always there for people who needed someone to talk to.

"If you came to Margaret with something going on in your life, she always had ways of looking at things you wouldn’t have thought of," Blumenthal said.

Howell grew up in Marietta, Georgia and had lived in New York, Montana and Arizona before settling in Portland 10 years ago. She loved to travel. On one of her trips, she ventured into Area 51 of "X-Files" fame, the Air Force base also known as a landing pad for UFOs. She relished telling the story of being chased out of there by a black helicopter in the middle of the night.

Besides the "X-Files" and "The Sopranos," Howell loved all sorts of films and devoured books on a whole range of subjects. She was a supportive union member, said Lovato, who worked just a cubicle wall away from her.

"Margaret was on the picket lines in our last contract fight," Lovato said. "Like most people she didn’t come to meetings, but she showed up in a pinch."

Howell was a very private person. People close to her knew she struggled with depression and did many things to fight it, from planting a garden to seeking professional help. But on July 29, she ended her own life.

"We’ll never know what happened on that Friday," said Ellis. "But who Margaret was as a person was much more than her depression, and we will miss her always."

Friends have donated to some of Howell’s favorite charities in her name, including: Street Roots Homeless Organization, http://www.streetroots.org/donate/money.html; The Humane Society of the United States Kindred Program, https://secure.hsus.org/01/kindredspirits, and Ethos, a Portland based music program for underserved youth http://www.ethos-inc.com/makea.htm.