Gag writer Choc Hutcheson has passed away.
Charlie Robert “Choc” Hutcheson
March 13, 1926 – November 19, 2020
As a high school student at Monument, Choc became a reporter for the Hobbs, New Mexico, Daily News Sun, and found a calling as a journalist that would spur a career in print and television news and sports.
When television came to Lubbock in the early 1950s, Choc became the first news/sports director for KCBD TV and was elected president of the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters Association. Although journalism was his calling, Choc indulged his love and knowledge of sports by taking positions at the Texas Baseball League in Fort Worth and as general manager of the Lubbock Hubber Baseball Club.
He even tried his hand at politics, serving as Assistant to the Chairman of the Texas Democratic Party when Preston Smith was re-elected as governor. Choc would complete his professional life as an independent oil investor in West Texas.
More from the obit:
Choc was always ready to start a conversation with a timely topic or a funny story from his past, and he loved a good joke. His wonderful sense of humor provided the opportunity for him to write gags for many national cartoonists, which appeared in some 300 publications, including The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, and Time Magazine [emphasis added]. His captivating storytelling earned him the title of “World’s Champion Liar” by the Burlington, Wisconsin, Liar’s Club and resulted in an appearance on the “I’ve Got a Secret” television show in 1961. Choc’s TV debut can still be viewed today on YouTube!
A 1984 column by Fort Worth columnist George Dolan said Choc wrote gags for 25 years. A 1958 column about cartoonist Jack Tippit mentioned Choc as a gag writer. That would put his association with cartoons from around the late 1950s to the early 1980s (give or take).
above h/t Eli Stein
From the August 29, 1962 Fort Worth Star-Telegram Dolan column:
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