Charles Maple

Charles Edward Maple (Journalist and Chamber of Commerce official)
Born	June 9, 1932 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA Residences: (1) Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (2) Amarillo, Texas (3) Brownfield, Terry County, Texas (4) Murfreesboro, Arkansas (5) Minden, Louisiana (6) Jacksonville, Cherokee County, Texas (7) Pearsall, Frio County, Texas Alma mater: Claude (Texas) High School Texas Tech University
Died	November 22, 2006 (aged 74) Pearsall, Texas Resting place: Ebenezer Cemetery in Limestone County, Texas
Spouse	Claudia Lucille Martin Maple (married 1955-2006, his death) Children: Carol Maple Chatfield David Maple Mark E. Maple Ted M. Maple Parents: Clifford E. and Drusilla Maple
Religion	United Methodist

Charles Edward Maple, known as Charlie Maple (June 9, 1932 – November 22, 2006), was a journalist, chamber of commerce executive director, and state parks executive during the second half of the 20th century in the four-state region of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas.

Background

Maple was born in Oklahoma City to Clifford E. and Drusilla Maple. His family moved to the Texas Panhandle in 1948, and he graduated two years later from Claude High School in Claude in Armstrong County. He attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock from 1950 to 1954 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a commission in the United States Army Quartermaster Corps. His Army service extended from 1954 to 1956 at Fort Lee, Virginia, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Fort Jackson, South Carolina. He was promoted to first lieutenant while on active duty as the battalion operations and training officer at Fort Bragg. From 1956 to 1981, when he resigned his commission, Maple was also a captain in the reserves.

Journalism

After military duties, Maple returned to West Texas to serve as the fire and police reporter for the Amarillo Globe-Times in Amarillo. He was associate editor and a stockholder for the Brownfield News in Brownfield in Terry County, Texas, and was the co-owner with his wife in the late 1950s of the weekly Pike County News in Murfreesboro in Pike County in southwestern Arkansas. He left Murfreesboro in November 1960 to become the news editor and a stockholder of what in 1966 became the daily Minden Press-Herald in Minden, Louisiana, under publisher Tom Colten. Maple succeeded Major de Pingre' as news editor of the two weekly newspapers.The Press-Herald was launched in July 1966 as a daily from the previous weeklies, the Minden Press on Mondays and the Minden Herald on Thursdays. During Maple's tenure, the separate Press and Herald weeklies won statewide awards in 1965.  Maple had been political editor of both Minden weeklies. His last job in journalism was as the associate editor and the state editor, the individual in charge of regional reporting, of the now Gannett publication, The Shreveport Times, but his obituary does not give his date of service in Shreveport.

Chamber of commerce

From October 1, 1966, to August 9, 1971, Maple, a former Jaycee, was the executive director of the chamber of commerce in Minden. In that capacity he worked on the city capital improvement program, adopted by voters in a special election held in the spring of 1967. The program entailed a one-cent municipal sales tax increase. The Minden chamber under Maple was voted the first "accredited" body in Louisiana. He thereafter accepted the same position in Sapulpa near Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Maples assumed the chamber position in Minden after nearly six years with The Press and The Herald. The position opened when Tom Colten, who had sold the newspaper in 1965 and became the chamber director, resigned in 1966 to run, successfully, for mayor of Minden, the first Republican in that position since Reconstruction. From August 1977 to September 1980, Maple was president of the chamber in Jacksonville in East Texas.

In civic affairs, Maple volunteered for twenty-five years with the Boy Scouts of America. He was a member of the United Methodist Church. He also served on the Minden Beautification Council.

Texas State Railroad

In 1981, Maple joined the Texas Parks and Wildlife Departments the assistant superintendent of the Texas State Railroad, a heritage railroad between Rusk in Cherokee County and Palestine in Anderson County. After twelve years, health issues compelled his retirement from the parks system. A year after Maple's death, the Texas State Railroad, which consistently failed to turn a profit, was leased for operation by American Heritage Railway.

Later years and family

Maple was married for fifty-one years to the former Claudia Lucille Martin (July 31, 1935 – July 15, 2009), the daughter of Claude Mayall Martin and the former Lois Donaldson. A native Texan, she graduated in 1952 from Lyndon B. Johnson High School in Johnson City, Texas. She met her husband at Texas Tech, where she also procured a degree in journalism and thereafter taught English and journalism at Mena High School in Mena, Arkansas, prior to becoming a kindergarten teacher at both private Christian and public schools for two decades.   At the time of their deaths, he from a long illness, and she from a short fight with liver cancer, the Maples were residing in Pearsall in Frio County, Texas, south of San Antonio. Charles Maple had a stepmother, the late Esther Giles Maple, and a surviving stepsister, Gail B. Deaton (born 1942) of Portales, New Mexico. He and Claudia had one daughter, Carol Maple Chatfield and husband, David, then of Houston; three sons, David Maple and wife, Darla, of Marble Falls, Texas, Mark E. Maple (born 1962) and wife, Lisa, of Bullard, Texas, and Ted Martin Maple (born 1965) and wife, Corina, of Pearsall, and ten grandchildren.   Charles and Claudia Maple are interred at Ebenezer Cemetery near Kosse in Limestone County in east Texas. Mrs. Maple had adopted the cemetery, recorded its history, and worked with a group to procure a state historical marker at the gate. Also known as Headsville Cemetery, Ebenezer dates to 1865.