Charles E. Maple

Charles Edward Maple, known as Charlie Maple (June 9, 1932 - November 22, 2006), was a journalist, chamber of commerce official, 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 Claude in the Texas Panhandle in 1948, and he graduated two years later from Claude High School. 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, Maple was also a captain in the reserves until he resigned his commission.
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 also worked for the Brownfield News in Brownfield in Terry County, Texas, and was the editor and publisher in the late 1950s of the weekly Pike County News in Murfreesboro, Arkansas. He left Murfreesboro in November 1960 to become the news editor of the Minden Press-Herald in Minden, Louisiana, under publisher Tom Colten.The Press-Herald was launched in July 1966 as a daily from the previous weeklies, the Minden Press and the Minden Herald. 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. 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. From August 1977 to September 1980, Maple was president of the chamber in Jacksonville in East Texas.
In civic affairs, Maple was a long-time promoter of the Boy Scouts of America. In his early years, he was active in the Jaycees. He was a member of the United Methodist Church. He served on the Minden Beautification Council.
Texas State Railroad
In 1981, Maple joined the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department as the assistant superintendent of the Texas State Railroad, a heritage railroad between Rusk in Cherokee County and Palestine (pronounced PAL ES TEEN) in Anderson County. After twelve years, health issues compelled his retirement from the parks system.
Later years and family
Maple was married for fifty-one years to the former Claudia Lucille Martin (July 31, 1935 - July 15, 2009),

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 south of San Antonio. They 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.<ref namecmm/> Charles Maple also had a stepmother, the late Esther Giles Maple, and a surviving stepsister, Gail B. Deaton (born 1942) of Portales, New Mexico,<ref nameobit/>

Charles and Claudia Maple are interred at Ebenezer Cemetery near Kosse in Limestone County in east Texas.<ref name=cmm/> Mrs. Maple had adopted the cemetery, recorded its history, and worked to procure a state historical marker at the gate. Ebenezer, also known as Headsville Cemetery, dates to 1865.

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