RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) - Lois Hawkes, a former owner of the Grapevine-Independent Newspaper and 60-year resident of Rancho Cordova, passed away May 11 at Kaiser Hospital in Sacramento. She was 89. 

Lois Hawkes was the widow of colorful Grapevine-Independent Newspaper publisher and columnist Doug Hawkes, who died in 2009. Lois had a long working relationship with the Grapevine-Independent as well, serving at various times as Circulation Manager, Typesetter and Copy Editor. It was an era when two local newspapers were vying for readership"'The Grapevine-Independent and the now-defunct Rancho Cordovan. 

Both Lois and Doug Hawkes worked for the newspaper from its earliest days in 1968. The Hawkes family ultimately became owners of the paper for the full decade of the 1980s.

She was born Lois Mae Holto Feb. 16, 1933, in Grand Forks North Dakota, the fifth of six Norwegian-American children born to Hilda and Gunder Holto. 

At age 10, Lois boarded a train with her family, moving from North Dakota to live in a city she had only seen in picture books"'San Francisco. Father Gunder Holto"'a WW1 US Army veteran"'had been recruited by legendary “Kaiser Shipbuilding” in San Rafael. Many Midwesterners like Gunder in those years were relocated to work at West Coast armament companies to help America win WW2. Lois attended school in the big City, and on weekends and during summer explored the streets of downtown San Francisco near her Civic Center neighborhood. 

A year after WW2 ended, she and her family returned to Grand Forks, where honor student Lois graduated a year early from Central High School, Class of 1950. For a short time, she was a performance “couples” roller skater in her old home town. But memories of beautiful California quickly lured her back to the Golden State, while most of her family stayed firmly planted in the cold North Dakota hinterland. 

As a teen now living in the warmth and among the palm trees of Los Angeles, Lois quickly found steady work while staying with her favorite sister Lorraine. It was a booming time for the young and dynamic SoCal area of the early 1950s. 

Now 20 years of age, Lois met future husband Doug Hawkes at a dance in downtown Pasadena. Doug Hawkes was an undergraduate at well-heeled Occidental University in nearby Eagle Rock"'a school attended by young Barack Obama three decades later. By summer, Lois and Doug were married in, and had a “Honeymoon in Vegas.” It was a Las Vegas just learning it might one day be the marriage capital of the nation. 

It was a time in the 1950s when gamblers and vacationers dressed formally. It was understandable when celebrity comedian Red Skelton apparently mistook young, glamorous Lois for movie star Debbie Reynolds in a casino. Lois was impressed when her new husband took her to a Vegas show and they listened to a famous crooner of the era, Al Martino, at the Sands Hotel. Martino two decades later played singer Johnny Fontaine in “The Godfather” movie.

After the couple’s first child was born in 1954, a regional sales job for Doug drew the Hawkes family north to Oakland and San Francisco. A few moves and children later, Lois and Doug settled into their longtime home in a shiny new suburb called Rancho Cordova. The year was 1962 and Rancho Cordova was booming with tract home projects and rapid population growth. The completed Hawkes family featured children Anne, Mitchell, Linden and Jeffrey. All would attend local schools and graduate from Cordova Senior High School. 

Lois, never a stay-at-home mom, worked in the 1960s at the fondly-remembered “Pied Piper” variety store in Cordova Village on Folsom Blvd. Her children were swimmers and baseball players, so Lois became a volunteer for the Cordova Swim Team and Rancho Cordova Little League, and joined a neighborhood Garden Club. When salesman husband Doug switched careers to start writing for the local Grapevine Newspaper, Lois became his assistant circulation manager. The energetic 5-0, 110-lb. Lois delivered heavy bundles of Grapevines to young paper carriers all over Rancho Cordova. 

Wanting full time work when her children were teenagers, Lois landed an executive secretary position with a nearby heavy equipment leasing firm, George M. Philpott and Company. She and husband Doug joined the local Elks Lodge, and thus Lois become a member of the Rancho Cordova Emblem Club. While with the Philpott Co. at special events, she rode the “Goodyear Blimp,” attended the 1972 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and Oakland A’s, and attended many San Francisco Giants games at windy Candlestick Park. She would work in the construction business 15 years. 

Husband Doug and eldest son Mitch purchased the now “Grapevine-Independent” newspaper from Lin Corey in 1979. Six years later, Lois joined the staff. She wore many hats at the family-owned business"'front office, circulation manager, typesetter and copy editor"'a lot of work, but a typical mix of jobs for owners of weekly newspapers in that era. 

After a decade, the Hawkes family sold the newspaper to Robert Ling. Lois then found work at Woolworth Garden Center for the next 6 years, while still finding time to assist the Grapevine-Independent Newspaper on circulation nights. 

In 1994 Lois was hired by Mervyn’s Department Store on Olson Drive, and worked 14 years at the jewelry counter. The nationwide chain Mervyn’s closed all stores during the “Great Recession” of 2009. 

Always keeping busy, Lois started an Internet business in 2009. She sold a wide range of items on eBay for the past 13 years. 

Honored by the new City of Rancho Cordova, the widowed Lois accepted the plaque for Doug Hawkes at the Rancho Cordova Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2016. 

Lois Hawkes is survived by three sons, two grandsons and two great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by husband Doug (2009) and daughter Anne (2019).