I’ve had this same question a while back when it comes to buying a camera for my better half, also known as She Who Must Be Obeyed. While I have taken photography classes, used both digital and film SLRs, and loved playing with ISO, depth of field and F-stops, she wanted… A camera. That took photos.
So, while I agree with the notion that any camera will do, she has had good experience and really likes her Sony Cybershot. It does the job and while it does not support the standard camera cards, it is fairly well designed.
One thing I would recommend that you look at with any camera is the lens and the shutter speed. If you want a camera that “just works” you want to buy one that has a good lens (look for a lens that supports optical zoom, not digital zoom) and one that can take pictures quickly – those two qualities separate cheap digital cameras from good ones, in my opinion.