Eve Baxter

Eve Baxter was the Dear Abby of the Denver Morning Call, the newspaper for which Martie Malone worked. Beany had a part-time job typing up Eve's answers to reader letters, which landed her in hot water in at least one book. A casual remark of Eve's had Beany pinning her hopes on a journalism job after high school. When that never materialized, Beany was at first devastated, but realized later that community-center work was more for her. Eve Baxter had a maid, Araminta.

From Image Cascade:

The following is the first description of Eve Baxter upon Beany's first meeting: "Eve Baxter sat at a large, roll-top desk. Beany had expected to notice the clothes which a much-quoted columnist would be wearing. But she didn't. It was only afterward that she remembered how a frilly, white something at the neck had broken the severity of Eve Baxter's gray, nubbiny wool.

Beany noticed first the alert, impatient, even jerky movements of Eve Baxter's head, her hands. Though the darkest of dark glasses hid her eyes, Beany could feel their flashing keenness. Would they be the dark blue that went with red hair? . . . Or maybe brown like Norbett Rhodes's? .. .

Eve Baxter's short red hair was lightly flecked with gray. Like the cinnamon and sugar mix they used on cinnamon toast, Beany thought. It had a wiry and unruly vigor, as though it did its own deciding which way to swirl, regardless of hair styles."

". . .(when) the seasoned newspaperwoman, Eve Baxter, had been confined to her home with an eye ailment, Beany had started helping her. She would drive over to Eve's house in her brother's jalopy, read the letters aloud to her employer, and take down the answers in her school shorthand. Eve Baxter even greeted her, 'Hello, my eyes,' and often said, 'You've got a good head and heart for solving problems, child.'"

Description of Eve Baxter's office: "It was a room with a dual personality. The part of the room where Eve Baxter and Beany worked was businesslike, with large cluttered desk and files and comfortable, mannish, leather chairs. But the alcove off the room was sheer femininity. Ruffled curtains and bedspread of pale green taffeta. Wallpaper with a lacy flower pattern in it. An array of cut-glass perfume bottles on the dressing table."