Winedale’s Leon Hale Dies at 99

Leon Hale, one of Texas’ most beloved writers, died Saturday at the age of 99.

He lived out his final years of his life at his “country place” with his wife Babette near the Fayette/Washington County line in Winedale after retiring from the Houston Chronicle in 2014.

He was born May 30, 1921 in Stephenville, was in the U.S. Army Air Corps for three years before earning a degree in journalism from Texas Tech in 1945.

He made a name for himself in Houston as a must-read columnist, first at the Houston Post and later the Chronicle.

His stories were often about country folks, or out of the way places or fishing trips – scenes that brought to the big-city audience of Houston a simpler life than the ones most of them were experiencing.

He wrote an annual column about going to south Texas to greet the arrival of spring, and another annual column about driving around the 610 Loop in Houston, marveling at the changes of each new year.

His newspaper columns numbered in the thousands, and he also authored a dozen books.

Hale’s last book, “See You Down the Road,” was published earlier this month.

His wife Babette is a wellknown writer and publisher herself, and writes a monthly column for The Fayette County Record.

– Jeff Wick