Loni Ingraham, Longtime Towson Times Reporter, Retires

Doug Riley was knocking on doors in Rodgers Forge in 1990 as he launched his first run for Baltimore County Council when he came to one house he'll never forget.

"Hello, Mrs. In-gra-ham," he said, awkwardly reading a name off a list.

"I know who you are!" the woman exclaimed. "I'm Loni Ingraham with the Towson Times."

And so began Riley's first newspaper interview, on the steps outside Ingraham's Rodgers Forge home.

This week, however, it was Ingraham's turn to be the lead story. A Towson Times reporter for 24 years, the 70-year-old Knollwood resident hangs up her notebook on Friday.

"The best part of my job is talking to people and listening to people," she said.

The people were talking about her at the Greater Towson Council of Community Associations holiday party at on Thursday evening with congratulations, hugs, and citations from the people she covered, spoke with and got to know over the years.

Community and business leaders gave her a certificate and flowers. State Sen. James Brochin, State Dels. Steve Lafferty and Bill Frank and County Councilman David Marks all came with citations to show their appreciation for Ingraham.

"She's a mainstay for reporters in Baltimore County. She's covered it all and I just think she's universally respected in the Towson area and beloved by a lot of people in Towson," Marks said.

In 24 years, she's covered six Towson-area County Council members, dating back to Barbara Bachur in the 1980s, Marks said.

 "She was covering communities when I was in high school," he said. "She really is an institution."

Community and business leaders hailed Ingraham's optimistic yet straightforward and fair style, and her ability to shine a light on people from the Towson area doing good in their community and around the world while still keeping tabs on important neighborhood issues, like development, crime and recent growth.

"She's always open to new ideas, making sure what's important to us is also important to her in what she's covering," said David Kosak, the GTCCA president. "So it's an important relationship in that she's there to help us and she's allowed the Times to be sort of that format to address a lot of what's going on in Towson."

Kosak added that he met Ingraham not long after moving into Fellowship Forest while a Towson University student, and said she quickly helped him feel at home.

"When I first met her I felt bad for her, because her office was right behind my building," said Nancy Hafford, executive director of the  "I would just run over there and bug her anytime I knew something was going on.

"But she never ever said, 'Stop bugging me.' She was always open to listen. Then if she thought it was a good story she would follow up on it."

Riley said, "I think most people open the Towson Times every week in anticipation of reading some happy news or a happy story that Loni had written. It was just such positive reporting always and I think it's going to be missed. She wrote about the best of us."

A reticent Ingraham called the celebration for her retirement "unreal."

"These are people I've worked with for years," she said. "I've enjoyed working with them." 

Ingraham was tight-lipped about her big plans after retirement, but she has already volunteered as the publicity chairwoman for , as it's hard to keep a good reporter down.