Columnist known by pen name, "Mike Mailway," dies at age 79

His "Love and War man" wasn't a man at all. It was his wife.

He bought his first computer in 1975 — long before most people had even heard of Bill Gates.

Over a 41-year career as a syndicated columnist, his name appeared in hundreds of newspapers. But everyone called him something different: His wife of 44 years called him "Mal," his buddies called him "Lou," local readers knew him as "Mike," while readers elsewhere in the country knew him by his initials, "L.M."

He was Louis Malcolm "L.M." Boyd, whose trivia column for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer under the pen name "Mike Mailway" turned into a syndicated staple of obscure facts and historical tidbits in 400 newspapers across the country.

Mr. Boyd died at his home in Seattle's Magnolia neighborhood on Monday, Jan. 22, 2007. He was 79. He had suffered small strokes over the past few years and his health declined rapidly in recent months.

Mr. Boyd, whose pseudo-surname "Mailway" came from the letter combinations of his original telephone number at the P-I, had retired for the last time in 2004.

"He was a brilliant man and he absolutely loved what he did," said Theresa Lawrence, of Redmond, one of six stepchildren Mr. Boyd raised as his own. "He loved the independence of not having a boss."

Born in Spokane on June 9, 1927, Mr. Boyd was orphaned and raised by his maternal grandparents, Lawrence said.

He earned a communications degree from the University of Pennsylvania, then served as a correspondent for ABC Radio in Germany during World War II. After the war, he got a job as a reporter for the Houston Chronicle. There he married his first wife, Pauline Boyd, in the late 1950s. The couple had three children and divorced in the early 1960s.

He met his second wife, the former Patricia Kiley, at work. They married in 1963 and moved to Seattle with Patricia's six children later that year, Lawrence said. She survives him in Seattle.

Patricia Boyd helped research and write her husband's trivia column. In print, she was "Our Love and War man," in reporting items about sex or relationships.

A vintage example from one column:

Sir, our Love and War man advises, "Speak softly to your lady and quote that great Greek Euripides, who said, 'Where there is no wine, there is no love.' " Waiter! Waiter!

"It was the two of them as a team," Lawrence said of her parents. "They worked together and played together. They were together 24-7. They just seemed to be like soul mates."

To distribute his trivia column, Mr. Boyd founded Crown Syndicate in the 1970s and ran it out of his basement. He took on other writers and wrote two other syndicated columns: one about antiques and the other about technology of the future.

In addition to his wife and stepdaughter, Mr. Boyd is survived by two children from his first marriage, Laurie Boyd and Paul Boyd, both of Houston, Texas; and five stepchildren Clare Hasler of Winter Park, Fla., James Kiley of Las Vegas, Nev., Marty Christianson of Seattle, and Mary Anne Boyd and Frances Robertson, both of Fort Worth, Texas; 10 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Son Malcolm Boyd predeceased him.

At Mr. Boyd's request, there will not be a funeral. The family is planning a private service.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com