Lately, Jim Hamm's emails have come with a star beside his name. Jim has been designated as a VIP. Wonder how he does it. . .
With emails from my six siblings it would be nice to have the mail list show them with the star and VIP to find them from all the other email. Turns out it's easy to do.
Click to open a message from a sender you want to designate as VIP. Put your cursor beside the sender’s name and click. Up comes a little box with choices: Copy Address, Add to VIPs, New Email, Show Contact Card. Click on Add to VIP and a little star comes to the left of that person’s name on that email. In the list of emails you’ve just received there’s a star also by their name. You can designate someone -- or yourself! -- as VIP by clicking same place in an outgoing mail.
A long article about Mail is here.