Vance Trimble
| Vance H. Trimble | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 6, 1913 Harrison, Arkansas, U.S. |
| Known for | Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author |
| Spouse(s) | Elzene Trimble |
Vance H. Trimble (born July 6, 1913) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for national reporting in recognition of his exposé of nepotism and payroll abuse in the U.S. Congress. In his life, Trimble has worked in the newspaper business for over fifty years. Trimble was inducted into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame in 1974. He has published numerous books since his retirement and is an avid reader.
Trimble was born in Harrison, Arkansas on July 6, 1913. His father was a lawyer and his mother was a poet and writer. Trimble’s father was the mayor of Harrison, and in 1919 a railroad strike on the Missouri led to mob rule in the town. His father took the side against the mob rule and was essentially forced out of town. The family traveled to Okemah, Oklahoma in 1920 to start a new life. Trimble and his family lived in Okemah until 1929 when they moved to Wewoka. Trimble graduated from Wewoka High School in 1931. In high school, Trimble was the editor of the school newspaper as well as a full-time reporter for the Wewoka Times Democratic as a courthouse reporter, sports editor, and city editor. At age nineteen, Trimble married Elzene Trimble on January 9, 1932. The two met in high school when they both worked on the school newspaper. Elzene worked at a florist shop and Trimble lost his job a week after they wed, which led to their cross country travels in order to find employment.
During the Depression, Trimble worked wherever he could write. He maintained two to three newspaper jobs around the Seminole and Maud area, but only for a limited amount of time. Eventually, Trimble and his wife took to the road to find him a newspaper job. Along the way Trimble would repair typewriters, adding machines, and cash registers for money. After a year and a half, Trimble got jobs in Muskogee, Tulsa, and Okmulgee. The dailies he worked for include: the Seminole Morning News, Seminole Producer, Okmulgee Times, and Muskogee Phoenix. Trimble also worked as financial editor of the Tulsa Tribune, and as editor of the Maud Enterprise. After being fired for joining the Newspaper Guild, Trimble went to work for the Beaumont Enterprise and the Port Arthur News in Texas.
In 1939, Trimble joined Scripps Howard as a copy editor for the Houston Press. Within six months, Trimble was promoted to city editor. Trimble served in the Army during World War II for two years, and when he returned was appointed managing editor of the Houston Press in 1950. In 1955, Trimble was transferred to the Scripps Howard Washington bureau as news editor in 1955. In this position, Trimble found his job to be duller than his previous job in Houston and decided to look for stories to investigate outside of his normal requirements. Trimble came across a book by Raymond Clapper about nepotism in Congress that had been published thirty years prior. He looked into current payrolls and found that around twenty percent of Congress had family members on their payroll. After running this story in the Washington Daily News, Trimble had a daily story for six months. As a result, Lyndon Johnson decided to open up the payroll records of the Senate to bring them up to date.
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