Houston Chronicle Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===1965–1987: J. Howard Creekmore era=== John J. Jones left the ''Chronicle'' not long after Steven's ouster. J. Howard Creekmore, president of the Houston Endowment, took John Jones' place at the ''Chronicle''. Everett D. Collier replaced Steven as editor. Collier remained in this position until his retirement in 1979. J. Howard Creekmore was born in Abilene, Texas, in 1905. His parents died while he was young, so he was raised by his stepmother. The family moved to Houston in 1920. Howard enrolled in Rice Institute, where he graduated with degrees in history and English. After graduation, he went to work for Jesse Jones as a bookkeeper. Jones took an interest in the young man's career, and put him through law school. Creekmore passed the bar exam in 1932 and returned to work for Jones. He held several positions in the Jones business empire. In 1959, he was named to the board of Houston Endowment, and was promoted to president of the board in 1964.<ref>Ackerman, Todd. [http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/100years2/1075494.html "At the helm: Chronicle publishers.]" ''Houston Chronicle''. October 12, 2001. Retrieved May 11, 2010.</ref> By 1965, Creekmore had persuaded other directors of Houston Endowment to sell several business properties, including the ''Chronicle''. Houston oilman John Mecom offered $85 million for the newspaper, its building, a 30 percent interest in Texas National Bank of Commerce, and the historic Rice Hotel. Early in 1966, Mecom encountered problems raising the additional cash to complete the transaction. He then began lining up potential buyers for the newspaper, which included non-Houstonians such as Sam Newhouse, Otis Chandler and the Scripps-Howard organization. Creekmore strongly believed that local persons should own the paper. He insisted that Mecom pay the $84 million debt immediately in cash. Mecom cancelled his purchase agreement.<ref>''Time''. "Newspapers: A Deal Done In" June 17, 1966. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101028161301/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,899233,00.html time.com] Retrieved May 10, 2010.</ref> In 1968, the ''Chronicle'' set a Texas newspaper circulation record. In 1981, the business pages—which until then had been combined with sports—became its own section of the newspaper. Creekmore remained as publisher until Houston Endowment sold the paper to the Hearst Corporation. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page