COUPLE REMINISCE ABOUT NEWSPAPER, AGOURA.

Byline: Victoria Giraud People and Places

Kim and Millie Coffin have seen a lot happen since they moved to Agoura - Millie in 1946, and Kim in 1958.

``We're about the only ones left that know the whole truth,'' 75-year-old Kim said. ``All this stuff should be written down.''

And, thanks to Kim and Millie, much of it is.

The couple has kept decades of memorabilia, plus all the editions of The Las Virgenes Independent Agoura Valley News that he and Millie published from 1965 to 1981. Their collection is so complete, in fact, that friend Carol Goddard is using the Coffins' archives to write a book on the history of the area.

Now retired to their local landmark home - the 1912 Cornell School - Kim has more time to reminisce. Until the late 1980s, the couple operated Millie & Kim's Liquor Store on Roadside Drive, also their headquarters for the weekly neighborhood newspaper.

The couple started the six-page paper ``to get the water board straightened out,'' and it grew over the years to include more than 20 columnists.

Kim is especially proud of the fact that an editorial he wrote about veterans was reprinted in The Congressional Record.

Another highlight is the invitation they received from President Reagan to visit the White House. Reagan was once an Agoura neighbor, but Millie had known him from years earlier, when she and her first husband were living in Des Moines, Iowa, Millie's home state. Millie's husband was a baseball umpire in those days, and Reagan was the announcer for the games.

During World War II Millie worked in a war plant in Lynwood, and then moved to Agoura to take care of an ailing aunt who lived across the street from The Rock Store on Mulholland Highway. After her aunt died, Millie operated The Rock Store as a ``butcher shop, liquor store and a gas station.''

Thousands of weekend visitors flocked to the nearby mountain entertainment spots - Lake Enchanto with its gigantic pool, Seminole Hot Springs with its natural hot springs and Town Hall Party.

``I was busy as hell,'' she recalled.

During the 1950s after Millie's husband died, she ran a liquor store next to Whizin's Restaurant (currently Wood Ranch). In 1958 Brooklyn-born Kim made the move across country - ``I couldn't stand New York'' - and ended up managing Whizin's bar.

``I heard there was a new bartender, but I came home when the store closed,'' Millie said. Not only that, she didn't drink. Her brother, who was helping her with the store, tried to get his sister to have some fun.

``He said, `Sis, why don't you take the time and have a decent dinner, there's a hell of a nice bartender,'' Millie recalled.

They finally met, Kim remembered, when he needed a ride into the San Fernando Valley to pick up some new white shirts for himself. ``I was a New York type of bartender with cuff links.''

It wasn't long before the two were married and running Millie & Kim's, a store they built. Millie recalled the hard work running the store in those early days. Except for beer and pop - ``Nobody delivered,'' Millie said - they had to pick up what they needed in the Valley themselves.

Kim became an active member of the community, joined the Agoura Chamber of Commerce, became a vice president and was chairman of the area development committee. His efforts helped keep the post office in Agoura, get a Las Virgenes library, make sure Agoura had flood control, and that Kanan Bridge was widened.

The Coffins sold their newspaper in 1981 to the Hearst newspaper chain as part of a buyout of many small, local newspapers, and Kim was hired as a consultant.

Fire heavily damaged the liquor store in the late 1980s - ``30 years worth of pictures - a collage from the beginning of the paper - went up in smoke,'' Kim recalled.

But he was lucky because of his foresight. Each week, ``I took one paper home for a morgue, and I left one there. Old wheeler-dealer had his morgue on his porch,'' he said, laughing.

Kim then began breeding and racing thoroughbred horses. His winners included Court-in-Candy and Candy-in-Court. Now Victory was the longest shot on the board in 1984, when the horse won. The appropriately titled Kim's Gold, he said, was his best horse.

Years at the track also had honed Kim's betting skills. In the 1980s he won more than $100,000 in the Pick Six at Santa Anita on opening day. ``I had nine winners that day,'' Kim recalled. While he was collecting his winnings for the Pick Six, he had his eye on the other races and ``had to rush downstairs to bet on another.''

Kim and Millie are concerned over what will happen to their converted schoolhouse when they pass on. It has a high old copper ceiling in a square pattern, and although the Coffins have added walls to make it more livable over the years, it could be restored.

``I'd like to see the (Santa Monica Mountains) conservancy buy this. I'd like to see it turned into a Las Virgenes Museum,'' Kim said.

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Photo

Photo: Millie and Kim Coffin of Agoura, who published a weekly neighborhood newspaper, reside in a landmark - the 1912 Cornell School.

Jeremy Greene/Special to the Daily News