Post gossip columnist a ‘gal’s gal’ who eschewed glitzy celebrities
Longtime writer recalled as ‘great supporter’ of city
Marge Crumbaker, who covered Houston’s jet set for some two decades as a gossip columnist for the Houston Post, died July 31 at her home in Llano. She was 93.
Crumbaker penned her column beginning around 1970, and her competition with the late Maxine Mesinger of the Houston Chronicle recalled the Hedda Hopper-Louella Parsons rivalry of Hollywood’s heyday.
“She was a great supporter of the city. She was involved in all sorts of philanthropic and support groups,” said Betsy Parish, who took over the Post’s society column when Crumbaker left in 1989.
While Mesinger was more focused on glamorous Hollywood celebrities, Crumbaker preferred to focus on what was happening in Houston.
“She really wanted (her column) to be locally focused,” Parish said. “In those days, there was a different audience for each newspaper.”
Parish said she met Crumbaker when she was 4 or 5 years old, back in the 1950s.
“She was teaching guitar lessons, and she taught my sister,” Parish said of Crumbaker, who worked at the original Houston Press newspaper before its demise in 1964.
They became friends when Parish worked in marketing and public relations in the hotel business.
“I worked with Marge, giving her items for her columns from 1969 through the middle of the 1970s,” she said.
Like her rival at the Chronicle, Crumbaker wanted exclusives for her column and always sought new Houston people to highlight.
“Marge didn’t want to write about somebody over and over again ,” Parish said.
The Post ceased publication in 1995 after it was acquired by the Hearst Corp., owner of the Chronicle. Me singer, who’ d covered the city’s social scene for more than four decades, died in 2001 at age 75.
In addition to the six columns a week she turned out for the Post, Crumbaker was successful in real estate. In 1977, she became a coowner of the Prince Solms Inn in New Braunfels and supervised an extensive renovation of the hotel.
“She was commuting from New Braunfels to Houston. She said ,‘ I’ m tired of this’ and didn’t want to do it anymore,” Parish said. “Writing a column six days a week is a grueling process. I didn’t realize how much work it was until I took the job.”
Crumbaker was originally from Oklahoma and traced her roots to the Cherokee Nation there. She was a professional jazz musician before she got into journalism. For five years, she had a position as musical director for Channel 11, and she wrote a song for country singer Eddy Arnold.
Crumbaker also wrote a biography of the king of rock ’n’ roll called “Up and Down With Elvis Presley.”
“It was a total and complete fascination she had with him,” Parish said.
Crumbaker did not have any children and, according to past interviews, had been married twice.
“She was a fascinating, smart and intuitive woman,” Parish said. “She was a ‘gal’s gal.’ I really liked her.”
Marge Crumbaker was buried Aug. 3 at the city cemetery in Llano.