This column was originally published in the Houston Post on Jan. 6, 1964. A native of Alabama, Marguerite Johnston Barnes worked as a reporter in Birmingham and later served as the Washington bureau chief for the Birmingham News, the Birmingham Age-Herald and the London Daily Mirror. She moved to Houston in 1946, writing a daily column for the Houston Post until 1968. She later wrote “Houston: The Unknown City” in 1992. Barnes died in 2005.
At the time this column was written, Louie Welch had just taken office as Houston’s mayor. The airport she references in this column is Hobby Airport today.
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