| Kountze newspaper man Moore leaves many stories |
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Posted: Friday, February 20, 2009 8:45 am
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By GERRY L. DICKERT
The Bee
He may be most widely known as the man who helped legally marry two armadillos in Hardin County.
But closer to home, Chester “Buddy” Moore was known as a loving father and husband and a dedicated newspaper man who spent decades doing the job he loved most.
Moore passed away this past Friday, Feb. 13, at Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital. He was 80 years old. He had struggled his entire life with failing eyesight and after surgery to correct his vision in 2002, he had a stroke.
Moore was part of the fabric that helped make Kountze and the Big Thicket mysterious at times and comical at others. He worked his hardest at bringing tourists to his beloved hometown through events that involved primarily the Big Thicket. At one point, he introduced the world’s first legally married armadillos, Hoover and Starr. After the “bride and groom” were parachuted in for the ceremony, an elephant stood in as best man.
From the age of 12, Buddy found his first love — newspapers. He was a printer’s devil working for The Silsbee Bee in the early 1940s.
It was there that he started writing a column as a 14 year old called “Sports Galore, by C.R. Moore.” By the time he was 18, he was a journeyman’s printer.
He worked for the Orange Leader, the Houston Post and the Augusta, Ga., Chronicle. He established the newspaper that later became the Hardin County News, but is likely most well-known for his newspaper The Kountze News.
It was with The News that he wrote what is considered some of his most critical and controversial material, often questioning local politics.
According to a Silsbee Bee front page story on May 1, 1975, Buddy was attacked by then-county commissioner Hugh Bevil Means.
Moore was the administrative assistant for County Judge Emmett Lack while also publishing The News.
The report says that Commissioner Means took offense to articles in the paper that he considered to say that he was taking kickbacks from a solid waste project the county was undertaking.
According to additional reports through the spring of 1975, the case went to the Hardin County Grand Jury where it was determined that Means should face assault charges.
Besides this run-in with one commissioner, another, current, Hardin County Commissioner remembers Moore as a man who loved Kountze and the Big Thicket.
“We owe Buddy a great debt of gratitude for all he did to help bring attention to the Big Thicket and Kountze,” said Commissioner Ken Pelt.
Moore is survived by his wife Jeanie and daughters Cherrye and Charlee, along with many other extended family members. |
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