Leslie Ruth Guttman

Journalist and author Leslie Guttman, whose puckish wit and graceful, empathetic feature writing enlivened the pages of The San Francisco Chronicle for 18 years—and publications and radio stations across the country thereafter— died March 14 in her native Kentucky after months of suffering from a rare combination of a medication reaction and a previously undiagnosed medical condition. She was 57.

Following her graduation with a degree in journalism from Indiana University, Leslie got her feet wet in the profession with writing and editing stints at suburban publications in the Bay Area, the Lafayette Sun and the Peninsula Times Tribune, then started her Chronicle career as a copy editor in 1987. She edited and wrote for a variety of Chronicle sections including the nowdefunct Sunday Punch, This World and Briefing.

Leslie cared deeply about the mission of journalism, but she also found writing and editing just plain fun. She brought to her writing a fierce sense of purpose, an elegant writing style and a keen eye for the telling detail. Personal and social quirks and human stories off the beaten track delighted her. She loved the opportunity to use her writing skills to call attention to people who weren’t patently newsworthy, especially those on society’s margins. She told their stories with deference and heart. Among her moving personal essays was a description of her encounter in a bookstore with a penniless woman who tried to steal a book on grieving after losing her grandmother.

As in everything she did, her writing embodied what one relative referred to as her “generosity of spirit.” Her spirit was on open display in an essay she wrote in The Chronicle in 2001, about an egret she grew accustomed to seeing daily while driving to work along the shoreline in Berkeley. One day, the egret simply wasn’t there anymore. “Then,” she wrote, “months later during a dull commute, after I had almost forgotten about the egret, I passed his spot and the tumblers finally clicked: In the middle of everything, when life seems ordinary or frustrating, something mysterious and beautiful is always waiting to look you straight in the eye.”

Leslie’s outsized talent was recognized early in her career with an Outstanding Young Journalist of the Year award from the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists.

Other professional honors followed over the years, including 13 Chronicle staff awards for excellence in editing and writing, the Peninsula Press Club first-place award for feature writing, a Salute to Excellence Award from the National Association of Black Journalists, a Yaddo screenwriting residency, and a Kentucky Foundation for Women grant for her screenplay “Black Breeze.” She was named 2020 Editor of the Year by The 431 Exchange nonprofit.

Leslie was a beloved figure in the Chronicle newsroom, warm, playful, spirited and deeply caring, with an ear for everyone’s joys and burdens. Said one colleague, “Leslie sparkled.” In Facebook posts, others commented on her highwattage smile. Her nimble wit is still treasured by those who knew her. One colleague recalled that whenever he would “natter on about something in a self-involved way, Leslie would interrupt to say, ‘But enough about you. Let’s talk about me.’”

Yet another former co-worker cherished the memory of her legendary tribute to Christmas fruitcakes – a story that was shared, computer to computer, around the Chronicle newsroom. In it, she declared unapologetically: “I like fruitcake,” then elaborated:

“Fruitcake is the perfect eco-food. It lasts forever, yet appears 100 percent biodegradable. It is easier to recycle than used Evian bottles.”

After leaving the Chronicle in 2005, Leslie gained national attention with lively feature stories and commentaries in newspapers, magazines and radio programs including NPR’s “All Things Considered” and “Morning Edition,” Men’s Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Salon, Orion, Paste, Marketplace, WNYC, “Here and Now” (WBUR, Boston), KQED in San Francisco and WEKU-FM in Central Kentucky.

Early in the online era, Leslie wrote but apparently never published a novel in which the story was told entirely through text-message exchanges. Her best-selling book “Equine ER: Stories From a Year in the Life of an Equine Veterinary Hospital,” published in 2009, was an immersive account of the relationship between horses and the veterinarians who treat them. It was a No. 1 Kindle best-seller on Amazon. The book has been used by educators in veterinary medicine and related fields. New York Times best-selling author Susan Richards said the book was “as thrilling and drama-filled as any of the popular hospital shows on television today.”

To help support her personal writing projects, Leslie edited and ghostwrote books for high-profile entrepreneurs through Scribe Media; three of those books were Amazon best-sellers. She also invested in and managed real estate, as had other family members before her. That vocation resulted in the podcast Rental Property Girl (“real estate investing for women”) and a finance book for women, “Landlord Shavasana: How to Buy your first rental property and stay relaxed and true to yourself while doing so.” By some reports, Leslie was the most tenant-friendly landlady in the state of Kentucky.

Leslie also worked as a content strategist for clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to a civil rights nonprofit and a web services firm. She has been a writing coach and editor of both fiction and nonfiction for the Carnegie Center.

Along with writing and journalism, Leslie loved, in no particular order, books, gossip, raffish hats, horses, four-leaf clovers, words, laughter, storytelling, her dog Daisy, lipstick, writers, her cat, “statement” fashion, schmoozing, flowers, music, her mother, brothers, nephews and niece, her sister-in-law Jennifer ... and salsa dancing, of which she once wrote:

“Salsa—the sensual Latin partner dance—isn’t a hot new trend in the Bay Area, it’s more like a tropical plant that keeps growing in every direction, blooming in wild colors and in out-of-the-way places.”

Above all, Leslie loved people. Every one of her vast circle of friends throughout the country felt as if Leslie was their closest friend and most devoted confidant -- and they all were.

Leslie is survived by her mother, Estelle Guttman; brothers Jerry Guttman and Steven (Jennifer) Guttman; nephews Riley Guttman and Ethan Guttman; niece Rose Guttman; cousins from across the United States and Canada, and legions of dear friends in the Bay Area and Lexington, Ky. She was preceded in death by her father, David E. Guttman, and her stepfather, Joseph Hamburg.

Funeral services were held on March 17. Memorial contributions may be sent to Temple Adath Israel, 124 N. Ashland Ave., Lexington, KY 40502 or to Doctors Without Borders.