81R19749 JGH-D
By: Pitts H.R. No. 2705
R E S O L U T I O N
WHEREAS, Family, friends, and former colleagues are mourning
the loss of veteran Texas newspaperman Charles Raymond Bell, Jr.,
of Waxahachie, who died on March 5, 2009, at the age of 77; and
WHEREAS, A native of Waco, Ray Bell began his career in
journalism at the age of 16, when he graduated from high school and
began a full-time job with the Hillsboro Daily Mirror; he started as
an assistant sports editor but was soon promoted to sports editor;
he also took on the job of writing about local engagements,
weddings, and parties and eventually was given responsibility for
the entire paper; and
WHEREAS, Picking up a college education piecemeal between
jobs, Mr. Bell was a journalist for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal,
the Temple Daily Telegram, the Charlotte Observer, the Waco
Tribune-Herald, the Dallas Times Herald, and the Fort Worth Press;
and
WHEREAS, He spent an exceptional 20 years with the Dallas
Morning News, where his work in the newsroom earned him the respect
of his editors and colleagues; he could handle myriad
responsibilities, and he received numerous awards, including ones
for his firsthand report of surviving a heart attack in the paper's
parking lot in 1983; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Bell also worked for the Associated Press in
Atlanta, sold articles to national magazines, such as The Saturday
Evening Post and Vanity Fair, and published six books, including
The Hiroshima Pilot, which he coauthored with William Bradford
Huie; he taught journalism part-time at El Centro College in Dallas
and worked in public relations; and
WHEREAS, Well past his retirement from full-time newspaper
work, Mr. Bell carried on as a journalist, and he covered local high
school football games even as his health began to fail, until about
a year before his death; and
WHEREAS, Ray Bell's veins ran with printer's ink for 60 years
as he pursued the trade he loved, and though his final late edition
has been put to bed, memories of the gentle nature and colorful
personality of this old-style journalist will remain to comfort all
those who knew and loved him; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 81st Texas
Legislature hereby pay tribute to the life of Charles Raymond Bell,
Jr., and extend sincere condolences to the members of his family: to
his wife, Barbara Bell; to his sons, Ray Bell III, Don Shaw, and
Kevin Shaw and his wife, Marsha; to his daughter, Monica Prater, and
her husband, Richard; to his five grandchildren and one
great-grandchild; and to his other relatives and friends; and, be
it further
RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be
prepared for his family and that when the Texas House of
Representatives adjourns this day, it do so in memory of Ray Bell.