Micki Flowers began her television career just days after graduating from the University of Washington in 1973. She turned down an offer from The Seattle Times and accepted an even more tempting offer to be a weathercaster with KIRO.

With that first report, Micki made history by becoming the first African American woman in front of the camera at KIRO. Less than a year later, she found herself anchoring and reporting for KIRO News at Noon.

KIRO in the early '70s had a reputation for being a very conservative station. If KIRO president Lloyd Cooney was the conservative torch, Micki was its liberal voice. She covered stories on racial tensions in the city, as was an active member of the community.

Micki is a founding board member of AIDS Housing of Washington, which was one of the first organizations in the nation to develop housing for AIDS patients. And Micki was just getting started: she is a member of the Seattle Children's Home Society, the Seattle chapter of LINKS Inc., ARCS and the Junior League.

Back at home, Micki's two sons, Christopher and Ross, were growing up and she wanted to be there for them. She also wanted to spend more time with her husband Robert, and her sister Vicki Fabré. Television was demanding too much time away from her family. So she did the unthinkable at the time--walk away from the television camera.

In 1987, with her two sons in college, Micki felt the call to return to television. KIRO welcomed her back as its health specialist. Micki reported on a variety of medical topics such as the AIDS crisis, Nobel Prize winners and new medical technology. She reported with an accessibility and depth that viewers could understand.

Micki didn't leave her volunteering behind. She wanted others who came after her to have the same opportunities she had getting into the television business. She helped found the Patricia Fisher Endowed Scholarship benefiting African American journalism students and is a board member of Scripps College in Claremont, Calif. In 1997, Micki and her husband received the Citizen of the Year Award from the Municipal League of King County.

When she retired in 2004, Governor Gary Locke proclaimed June 25 Micki Flowers Day. He said Micki is "the epitome of someone who is good, someone who cares, someone you are proud to know."

Micki admits she is busier now than when she was working. When she's not volunteering, she and her husband spend time seeing their sons and grandchildren in Atlanta and Sacramento. Micki and Robert recently became proud grandparents for the fourth time.