Novelist Charles Portis dies at 86
Arkansas Times
By Max Brantley
February 17, 2020
Charles Portis, the Arkansas novelist best known for his
enduring best-seller True Grit, died this morning after several years
of failing health. He was 86.
His death was confirmed to me by his brother, Jonathan, who
is going to supply me shortly with an obituary prepared by the family. Here,
too, is the entry on Portis in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
He was born in El Dorado and
grew up in South Arkansas, including in Hamburg.
After a stint in the Marines during the Korean War, he studied journalism at
the University of
Arkansas, became a
newspaper writer and then turned to fiction. True Grit, the western
novel set in Arkansas,
was his biggest claim to fame and twice made into a movie. But his other
comic fiction had many fans — Norwood, The
Dog of the South, Masters of Atlantis, and Gringos
Escape Velocity, a collection of Portis’ shorter
work, included an exploration of the Ouachita River that he wrote for the Arkansas
Times.
Here’s the obituary the family prepared for Ruebel Funeral
Home.
Portis lived for years in a Riverdale apartment until the
advance of Alzheimer’s moved him to a care facility.
Charles McColl Portis, 86, of Little Rock, died Monday, Feb. 17, 2020. He
was the son of the late Samuel Palmer Portis and Alice Waddell Portis. His
beloved sister, Aliece Portis Sawyer, died in 1958.
Charles, known as “Buddy” and “Charlie” to his family and
friends, was born Dec. 28, 1933, in El
Dorado. He grew up in El Dorado,
Norphlet, Mount Holly
and Hamburg, all in south Arkansas.
After graduating from Hamburg High School,
Charles enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and fought in the Korean War, serving
with H Company, Third Battalion, Fifth Marines, 1st Marine Division,
to battle the invading Chinese Communist and North Korean forces. He was
promoted to sergeant and received several commendations for his service.
He received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Arkansas in 1958. He was a reporter at
the Northwest Arkansas Times in Fayetteville
and the Commercial Appeal in Memphis.
He was a reporter and columnist for the Arkansas Gazette, a writer for
Newsweek magazine and was the London
bureau chief for the New York Herald-Tribune.
Charles published five novels, numerous magazine articles
and short stories and one stage play. He was perhaps best known for his 1968
novel, True Grit, which was a New York Times best-seller, and
was made into two acclaimed motion pictures, though neither film measured up to
Charles’s masterwork. The novel also became a television program and inspired a
film sequel called Rooster Cogburn. His first novel, Norwood, published in 1966, was made
into a movie in 1970.
His articles, short stories and memoirs were published in
such magazines as The Saturday Evening Post, The New Yorker, The
Atlantic Monthly and The Oxford American. Much of this work was
collected in Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany, edited by
Jay Jennings and published by the Central Arkansas Library System.
Buddy was a devoted son, a generous brother, a doting uncle
and a steadfast friend. He shunned the spotlight, social events and
self-promotion while quietly mentoring other writers who somehow managed to
find him. He loved dogs and cats, having no preference for one species over
another. As a teenager he worked as an apprentice mechanic at a Chevrolet
dealership, setting off a lifelong passion for working on used cars and trucks
in his spare time. He was a voracious reader, a habit he acquired while serving
in the Marine Corps.
He was a really funny guy with an uncanny gift for observing
human behavior and capturing it in a sui generis style of writing that
captivated fans and critics. “Charlie thinks things no one else thinks,” his
friend, the late Nora Ephron, once said.
Charles is survived by his brothers, Dr. Richard P. Portis
(Leah) and Jonathan W. Portis; nephews Samuel Portis Sawyer, Robert Paul Sawyer
(Nathania), Charles J. Portis, Cameron Aviles (Samantha) and Palmer Aviles;
nieces Dr. Susan Portis-Ferguson (Michael), Jane Portis and Toni Portis King
(Rob); grandnieces and grandnephews Laura Davis, Walter Ferguson, Cora
Ferguson, Allison King and Timothy King.
Funeral will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Feb., 25, at Second
Presbyterian Church in Little Rock.
Graveside service with military honors will be at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at Hamburg Cemetery, Hamburg,
Ark.
Charles’s family is grateful to the staff of the Parkway
Shell Alzheimer’s Center, the McClellan
Veterans Hospital,
Hospice Home Care, and the owners, staff and friends at Rivercliff Apartments
and at the Faded Rose Restaurant.
The best way to honor Charles’s memory is to make a generous
donation to the Humane Society of Pulaski County, Ark.
PORTIS, Charles (Charles
McColl Portis)
Born: 12/28/1933,
El Dorado, Arkansas, U.S.A.
Died: 2/17/2020, Little Rock, Arkansas,
U.S.A.
Charles Portis’
westerns – writer:
True Grit – 1969 [writer]
Rooster Cogburn – 1975 [characters creator]
True Grit: A Further Adventure – 1978 [characters creator]
True Grit – 2010 [writer]
