Although her RJ column is ending, Huffey plans to keep up with the social scene

She'll always be a party girl.

But now, longtime Review-Journal columnist Dorothy Huffey can put down her pen — and enjoy the scene she's covered for more than three decades.

That's because Sunday's "RJ Goes to a Party" column will be Huffey's last after 33 years of chronicling benefits, balls and other assorted bashes around town.

Ask Huffey, 76, how she got the job and she launches into a reminiscence of what she was doing just before she was hired.

That something: co-chairing the Reno and Las Vegas inaugural balls for newly-elected Gov. Richard Bryan.

Huffey remembers the details — $10 for tickets to the inaugural ball itself (held at what was then the MGM Grand, now Bally's), $35 for the ball and a "fancy deal at the Dunes" beforehand.

She remembers running into then-Sheriff John Moran at Fashion Show mall and asking him to shut down the Strip, which he agreed to do, so "every single marching band" in town, accompanied by baton and flag twirlers, could create a walkway for partygoers.

She remembers that Liberace accompanied the first dance and former showroom headliner Lola Falana entertained.

And she remembers the one snag: as the guests descended from the Dunes mezzanine, "the ladies' gowns were getting caught in the escalators."

Of course, Bryan's inaugural ball qualifies as a family affair: the future Nevada governor and U.S. senator was best man at Huffey's wedding, and Bryan's wife Bonnie was Huffey's classmate at the University of Nevada, Reno.

But back to how Huffey got her job at the Review-Journal.

"I had never written anything in my life," she admits. "I never, ever would have gone after the job."

But when the Review-Journal's Florence Lee Jones Cahlan stepped down after a 20-year run as society columnist, Review-Journal editors approached Huffey.

Huffey met with Cahlan to seek her advice, which was " 'You've really got to know the history of the state of Nevada,' " Huffey notes.

Not a problem for someone whose Silver State roots go back to before statehood. (Her great-grandfather's signature is on the Nevada constitution.)

Still, "I was afraid to take" the Review-Journal job because I didn't know anything about journalism," Huffey admits. "Who could fill (Cahlan's) shoes?"

Apparently, Review-Journal editors thought she could; they ran a front-page story, complete with her photograph, announcing her as the paper's new society columnist.

Which is how Huffey's husband, Paul (who died in 2012), found out about his wife's new Review-Journal column — he spotted the paper on a newsstand after returning from a fishing trip.

At that memory, Huffey bursts into laughter.

"He wrote a letter to the R-J," pointing out the fact that " 'my wife has never written anything in her life,' " she adds, still laughing.

That's no longer the case, of course.

Through the years, Huffey has seen the Las Vegas party — and nonprofit — scene grow; more than 2,000 Southern Nevada charity events, from Opportunity Village's Camelot at the Magical Forest to Nevada Ballet Theatre's Black and White Ball, now vie for attention (and donations).

Some of the biggest raised millions for such local fixtures as Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy and Nathan Adelson Hospice, she points out.

Another big difference since Huffey began covering the party beat for the Review-Journal: the price of tickets, which "has made it prohibitive for townspeople to attend."

To illustrate, Huffey pulls out an invite to an upcoming benefit and reads the prices, which range from $600 to $2,000 for single seats and $6,000 to $25,000 per 10-seat table.

As a Review-Journal columnist, Huffey always was "invited to be at the table."

In part, she says, that's because "they know I'm true-blue. They trust me," Huffey adds, because "I don't get nasty toward anyone. You have to be polite to everyone."

Including photographer Marian Umhoefer, "who's been with me since 2000" and "has never had a cross word" with Huffey. (Unlike one local, who pressured Huffey to put his name in her column and unleashed a tirade when she refused — as usual.)

During her years covering the party beat for the Review-Journal, "I started at $100" per column, "and I got one $5 raise in 33 years," she says.

"I can't say I'm going to miss the money," Huffey later quips, following up with another full-throated laugh.

Good thing she didn't quit her day jobs: as a state personnel commission chair for Gov. Bryan, then an 11-year-run as UNR's alumni and development director.

As for what she'll miss most, it's "meeting interesting people," Huffey admits.

She's met plenty, from presidents (among them Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy) to movie stars (silver screen legend Cary Grant once escorted her into an event).

And though she's leaving the party beat, Huffey has no plans to abandon the party scene.

Whether it's Chefs for Kids, the charity that she co-founded (which is celebrating its 25th anniversary) or the Junior League (which awarded Huffey its lifetime community achievement award in 2013), Huffey plans to stay active.

That is, when she's not at The Smith Center (she's a season subscriber to both the Las Vegas Philharmonic and Broadway Las Vegas seasons). Or spending time with her son, Neil, daughter-in-law, Kara — and the newest member of the family, her 1½-month-old grandson, Hudson.

Of course, she'll have to buy her own tickets now that she's no longer covering parties for the Review-Journal.

But that shouldn't be a problem for Huffey.

"It all depends on who you know," she says. "My friends have been very kind."

For more stories from Carol Cling go to reviewjournal.com. Contact her at ccling@reviewjournal.com and follow @CarolSCling on Twitter.