Jackie Hale Johnson

Journalist, real-estate agent, do-it-yourself stockbroker, late-blooming grad student, master gardener, culinary innovator, a sports fan for all seasons -- Jackie Hale Johnson fits into all these categories.

But above all, she was a writer. Though her journalism career was short -- she left her job as a reporter for the Galveston News after marrying a co-worker, Robert Martell Johnson, in 1953, moving to Dallas and having two sons -- she never stopped writing.

Jackie died Sept. 24, 2020 in Dallas after a two-month battle with a variety of ailments.

She wrote feature articles, essays and poetry -- some of which saw the light of day in a variety of publications. She understood that writing was both a vocation and an avocation -- talent and imagination helps, but so does a dogged work ethic. "There is always a choicer phrase out there," she said.

So she wrote. And wrote. And wrote. Mostly in longhand, although she owned an old manual typewriter. A stack of journals at her bedside testified to that.

And then in 2013, when she was 85, she decided to try her hand at songwriting. She had an idea for a love song, and sent a query letter. Like any good writer, she went through a couple drafts first. An excerpt:

"Dear George Strait:

"I have just heard that you are planning a farewell tour and I have a song for you. The working title is 'Love Is Nothing in Tennis But Everything in Hearts.' The short title, and maybe better, is 'Love is... (fill in the blank).' "

She added that she had the tune in her head and would send the complete lyrics. And though she wasn't demanding royalties, "I'm not averse to money."

Unfortunately the actual letter containing the lyrics is nowhere to be found. And since there were no reports of George giving Jackie a shout-out during that final tour, we assume her pitch fell on deaf ears.

Not that her life was without accomplishment. Born Feb. 13, 1928, the ninth of John and Fannie Hale's 10 children, in Kirbyville, deep in the East Texas Piney Woods, she was co-valedictorian of Kirbyville High in 1945 and earned a journalism degree from Sam Houston State Teachers' College in Huntsville. (Trivia note: Her journalism professor, Hugh Cunningham, was later immortalized in the book "The Camera Never Blinks," by Dan Rather, who attended Sam Houston a few years after her).

In Galveston, she was a reporter of some renown, to the point that her new husband, who worked in advertising, was once referred to as "Mr. Jackie Hale."

After spending much of the next two decades raising two boys -- she said she agreed with the sentiment that the phrase "hyperactive child" was redundant -- she went back to school to get her real estate license. Not long after her husband died in 1974, she went back to college -- this time to grad

school, earning a master of arts in comparative literature from the University of Texas at Dallas in 1978.

The decades that followed were filled with activities -- when she wasn't at the Audelia Road branch of the Dallas Public Library checking out the latest investment publications, she was playing tennis. And bridge. And pounding the cinders every morning at the track at Lake Highlands Junior High just blocks from the house on Mapleridge Drive she built with her husband in 1969 -- and where she lived the rest of her life.

And joining a book club (though she never said much about it. Apparently the first rule of Book Club is "No one talks about Book Club.")

Her culinary creation, a fudge pecan pie, won an award at the State Fair of Texas (she credited a secret ingredient -- a tablespoon of brandy).

And maybe, had she trusted her writing skills a bit more at 85, she might have realized the germ of a hit country song was lurking deep in her letter to ol' George.

She wrote:

"I was a newspaper reporter in my youth and have continued to be published a bit in periodicals. But as an 85-year-old widow, I mostly just attend to the mechanics of living."

"The Mechanics of Living"? Now that's a country song.

Survivors include two sons, Robert (wife Sue) of New Braunfels; and Mark, of Garland; four grandchildren, Amanda, Clinton (wife Brooke), Evan and Ben; and countless nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, John and Fannie Hale of Kirbyville; her husband, Robert Martell Johnson, of Dallas; her nine brothers and sisters -- (in birth order) Johnny Mae, Pat, Josh, Marvin, Doris, Tommy Juanita, Melba, Ann and Garland; and a daughter-in-law, Kathryn Bruton Johnson.