NOVELIST ELMER KELTON DIES AT 83
  

 

 

 
 
 
EDITOR'S NOTE: Award-winning novelist Elmer Kelton of San Angelo died Saturday. He was 83. Below is his obituary, written by his family.

SAN ANGELO — Elmer Stephen Kelton, 83, died Saturday. He was born April 29, 1926, at Horse Camp in Andrews County to Mr. and Mrs. R.W. “Buck” Kelton, and grew up on the McElroy Ranch in Upton and Crane counties. He completed his education at the University of Texas after serving in Europe during World War II.

Kelton married Anna Lipp of Ebensee, Austria in 1947 and began a career in agriculture journalism at the San Angelo Standard-Times in 1949. He became editor of the Sheep & Goat Raiser magazine in 1963 and associate editor of Livestock Weekly in 1968, retiring in 1990. Kelton maintained a parallel career as a freelance writer, beginning with short stories in the post-war pulp magazine trade, progressing to novels, non-fiction books and countless magazine articles. In all, he wrote more than 40 books, including “The Time it Never Rained,” “The Wolf and the Buffalo,” “The Day the Cowboys Quit,” and “The Good Old Boys,” which became a Turner Network movie directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones. Kelton was named the number-one Western writer of all time by the Western Writers of America. The WWA voted him seven Spur awards for best Western novel of the year and the career Saddleman Award, and he received four Western Heritage Wrangler awards from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.

He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Ann Kelton of San Angelo, sons Gary Kelton of Plainview and Steve Kelton of San Angelo, with wife Karen McGinnis, and daughter Kathy Kelton, also of San Angelo and companion Pat Hennigan. He and Ann have four grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and one great-great grandchild. He is also survived by his brothers, Merle and wife Ann of May, Texas, Bill and wife Pat of Atlanta, Texas, and Eugene and wife Peggy of McCamey.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the giver’s favorite charity or the Tom Green County Library’s Elmer Kelton statue fund through the San Angelo Area Foundation at 2201 Sherwood Way, Suite 205. Arrangements are pending at Johnson’s Funeral Home.

 

 

 
 
 
 

A few comments from those who knew him...

  

"After writing my first two books, I lost my publishing deal, and thought my career as a fiction writer was possibly over.  My dad, who knew Elmer through the Livestock Weekly, told me I should call Elmer. I did. Elmer suggested I join WWA. I took his advice and I met the right people to keep my career as a novelist alive.  I know very well that I am but one of many, many writers who benefited from Elmer’s advice and generosity. I always liked doing book signings with Elmer, because lines of folks would show up with shopping bags full of books that they had bought over the years.  They’d ask Elmer to sign all of them, and he would graciously and patiently do so.  Meanwhile, I would sit nearby and look pitiful, and people would feel sorry for me and maybe buy one of my books, too, while they waited for Elmer to sign multiple titles. Elmer Kelton was one of the finest gentlemen to ever walk the face of the Earth. In Texas, he has been celebrated for years for his gift of writing historical fiction. But, his influence reaches far beyond the Lone Star State. He is an American treasure. From a personal standpoint, he (along with Don Coldsmith and Norman Zollinger) inspired me to carry on this odd business of telling the truth by making things up. I will never be able to pass along as much to others as he gave to me."—Mike Blakely

 

 
 
 

"For me it was Elmer Kelton’s The Time it Never Rained.  He was a grand, kind gentleman… and, as we all know who read the West, a great novelist. I was stunned when Elmer introduced himself to me at the 2001 Western Writers of America gathering in Idaho. He had a wagonload of Spur Awards and I had just received one for poetry. Before he came over to say gracious and generous words, I had hoped to convince somebody to introduce me to him. I saw him again in Helena, Montana, at a subsequent Western Writers of America meeting. He seemed in fine form and told marvelously hilarious stories. Western writers will long miss Elmer Kelton… a wise and noble soul, a writer of unforgettable, magnificent novels about the West we love."—Red Shuttleworth

  
 
 

"I first met Elmer in 1995 where he was a keynote speaker at the Ozark Creative Writer's conference in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I was lucky enough to sit at his table at the awards banquet and hear fantastic and witty stories of his success and experiences along the trail of becoming a famous novelist. I had no idea that our paths would cross again in 1999 when I attended the Western Writers of America convention in Rapid City, South Dakota. I have many memorable, personal moments of Elmer from the past decade; like the time he asked me to manage his Web site, and the honor I felt to be able to work so close with him. The sharing of stories each year at conventions or the Texas Book festival. The time he read one of my novels and offered so many kind comments and how it reminded him of experiences in his own life. The time I sat with him and Ann in Cody, Wyoming, and listened to them both talk about how they met and were about to celebrate 60 years of marriage. How lucky I felt to host the conference that next year where he and Ann celebrated their 60th anniversary, and watched them sit together at the book signing to sign his memoir, Sandhills Boy. When I heard of his passing I had many of these memories roll through my mind, but the one feeling that I know I share with people all over the world was the time I first read a novel by Elmer Kelton. I was a young teenager when I picked up a tattered paperback of The Time it Never Rained at our school library, a reading experience that to this day ranks among the best. Elmer will be missed by so many people, but fortunate for all of us, he lives on through his writing."—Steven Anderson Law

  
 
 
 

"I first met Elmer Kelton at my first WWA convention in Santa Fe in 1982. I was wildly ignorant of the work of contemporaries in the western field, didn't know who he was apart from a warm and friendly stranger, and having never been farther west than Kalamazoo I misplaced his accent, which reminded me of actor Ben Johnson's. "Oklahoma?" I asked. Elmer smiled that ready smile of his and said, "Texas. It's a suburb of Oklahoma."—Loren D. Estleman

  
 
 

"I have read and enjoyed Elmer Kelton books with their wonderful Texas characters for many years.  I was so glad to meet him and hear some of his ponderings about future story ideas at the Springfield, Missouri, WWA Conference in 2007.  What a thrill it was to have him in the audience during panels I moderated there. So sad that his earthly adventures and descriptions of them have ended."—Dan R. Manning 
 

  
 
 
 
"The reality of never seeing Elmer again makes me cry every time the thought occurs to me.  I find it difficult to sum up Elmer's effect on me for the past twenty-six years because, like the man himself, his influence was profound but subtle. Occasionally in a lifetime one is fortunate enough to meet someone who is not only a gifted writer, but a genuinely fine human being, and a witty one besides.  I'm a better person for having been privileged to know Elmer Kelton.  I will deeply miss his presence on the planet."—Lucia Robson