Elsie Riley has served customers at the Bovine Bakery for almost as long as the bakery itself has been open, forging friendships and relationships with countless locals and visitors along the way. Now, after 24 years, Ms. Riley is stepping down from her post as she prepares for surgery on both shoulders. “I thought, ‘Maybe it’s time,’” she said.
One afternoon in 1991, Ms. Riley, who now lives in Petaluma, swung by the bakery, then…