WELCOME TO TYLER!
By Marvin Mayer
If you walk Tyler's Half Mile of History, you won't find a plaque honoring the late Mary Howes, but her name is permanently engraved in the hearts of hundreds of people who moved to the city between 1969 and 1999. It was over that 30-year span she took the initiative to "officially" welcome newcomers to the Rose City.
According to an April 27, 2014 Tyler Morning Telegraph article, the Mount Enterprise native migrated to Tyler in 1954. Naturally out-going , Mary kind of "fell into" the welcoming role when asked to fill in for another woman who, at that time, owned the "Your City Hostess" business. The substitute role turned full time when she acquired the business shortly thereafter.
Mrs. Howes took her role seriously. "She loved people and she would always light up with people," said her daughter, Susan Heide, adding, "I mean she drew energy from being with people, loved to meet new people."
It wasn't enough for Mrs. Howes to merely welcome newcomers. She wanted to make the new arrival feel "at home" as soon as possible. To acquaint new arrivals with the city and its services, she organized a welcome packet with brochures and other information from a variety of merchants, but she also showed loyalty to those merchants by giving them "exclusivity" in her welcome packets. That is, she included information from only one provider of a given product or service; one bank, one dry cleaner, one drug store, etc.
She believed in the personal touch, so she never would leave her information/welcome package on the front stoop. To her, it was personal, and she went the extra step by scheduling an appointment with the new arrival, then personally delivering the information making sure it was placed in the hands of the specific person on whom she called. It didn't end with a simple delivery of a packet of information. Mary wanted to actually get to know the new person and many became long term friends.
In the late 1980s, Mary met Henry Bell, then Chief Operations Officer at the Tyler Area Chamber of Commerce. Bell lauded Mary for her ability to attract new members [to the Chamber.] She set records for selling new memberships and as a result, was named the first recipient of an award named in her honor, the Mary Howes Award. The award continues to recognize the contact club member who shows outstanding performance in membership development, has been a member for at least three years and has achieved a minimum of five production awards. Mary was the first female member of the Chamber's contact club, a group of 30 men and women who sell chamber memberships and do ribbon cuttings. It's no wonder the Mary Howes award remains a coveted prize today and is presented to the winner at the Chamber's annual meeting in September.
When Mary's health began to fail in the late 1990s, she asked friend and former client, Barbara Renicker, to take over the business. Honored and flattered to have been asked, Barbara chose to honor her friend by committing to continue City Hostess duties with the same personal touches developed by Mary. Among those touches were treating each new arrival as if she were the most important person in Tyler; personally meeting her and personally delivering the new person's welcome package.
Mary Howes, whose name became synonymous with hospitality, passed away in 2000. She left behind a lengthy list of friends; people who quickly came to feel "at home" in their new surroundings, thanks to the welcoming attributes of Tyler's longest serving City Hostess.
Tyler Morning Telegraph, Monday, April 27, 2014, researched and written by Emily Guevara