By John Toth
The Bulletin
I answered The Bulletin phone in early January 2019. Ernie Williamson was calling.
“I picked your paper up at the Pearland Library, and I really like it. I was wondering if I could in some way contribute to it,” he said.
“Sure. Tell me a little about your background and what you have in mind,” I replied.
He started with: “I was the managing editor at The Houston Post until it closed. Then I became an assistant managing editor at The Houston Chronicle.”
“Stop there. I don’t think we can afford you. You may be a little overqualified,” I said.
“I don’t care about the money. I just want something to do,” he said.
He talked about the rare neurological disorder he never heard of (before he was diagnosed with it) that took away his ability to walk. After he retired from the Chronicle in 2014, he found himself, as he wrote in one of his columns in The Bulletin, with a lot of time on his hands, “rolling around in a wheelchair.”
We agreed to meet at a restaurant a few days later to discuss how we could fit Ernie into The Bulletin. I wanted to do it any way possible, but I was a little apprehensive. Ernie was one of the executives at those papers who hired writers like me. I wrote for the Chronicle for 12 years before deciding to quit and start The Bulletin.
It was about a three-hour lunch. We exchanged stories, talked shop and just had a great time. We agreed that he would write a column and on the price. He proposed to do it weekly, as he attempted to “give a voice to the disabled, their families and their caregivers.”
His down-to-Earth attitude and friendly demeanor melted whatever apprehension I may have had. We wanted Ernie to be part of our team.
We published his first column on Jan. 29, 2019. He filed them like clockwork, every Wednesday, giving us a week’s notice if he could not file, because of a doctor’s appointment or some other important reason.
Ernie expanded his columns to other interests, and when we asked him if he wanted to contribute to our annual Veteran’s section, he filed a column about his experiences in Vietnam.
He was hired by The Houston Post after his return from Vietnam. When the Chronicle bought out the Post, Ernie was hired as an assistant managing editor at the Chronicle.
His wife, Kelly, called us with the bad news. Ernie passed away on Wednesday, Jan. 8, at age 77.
We were very fortunate to have him as a columnist and feature writer. He asked for story ideas around Brazoria County and wrote dozens of features for The Bulletin. The last one appeared in the Dec. 31 issue. Ernie wrote about an Angleton woman who has visited all of Texas’ counties.
This wasn’t the usual hard-hitting story that big-city papers publish, but Ernie made each piece into a human-interest story that brought to the surface the engaging details that made his subjects stand out. He had a talent for weaving it all together into an easily digestible, entertaining story.
He wrote several times about his disability, not to make people feel sorry for him, but to provide information about alternatives and examples on how he was coping and finding solutions.
He also wrote columns about his cats, his interests, current events, and whatever else came to his mind, all delivered on schedule, engrossing and well written.
In September, we asked him if he would like to tell his cancer diagnosis story in our issue dedicated to breast cancer. He agreed, even though previously he shied away from it.
“I was reluctant to write this column because I was embarrassed about having breast cancer. Would people think I was less masculine?” he wrote. “But I am done with feeling embarrassed, and I write this column in hopes my story will trigger some other guy into making a life-saving trip to his doctor.”
Classic Ernie.
Godspeed, Ernie Williamson. Thank you for all of your contributions to The Bulletin. It was our honor to have you as a friend and columnist. You are missed very much.
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