One day after former publisher Marie Flickinger’s death, employees at the South Belt-Ellington Leader are focused on meeting deadlines for this week’s issue. The local Southeast Houston newspaper, which Flickinger founded in 1976, goes to print at 10 a.m. on Wednesday to hit the stands on Thursday.

“Marie always operated with a sense of urgency,” John Bechtle, the paper’s longtime sports writer and editor, told the Landing Tuesday. “Today, what she wants us to do is get this paper out.”

Flickinger died Monday at 82. She is survived by her husband, David, and her two sons, Fred and Davy.

Describing Flickinger as “the single most influential person that the South Belt community has ever encountered,” Bechtle said her death will create a “huge void.” 

Flickinger is most remembered for her work at the Leader, where she exposed the impact of toxic waste from Pasadena chemical refinery; her thirty years of service to the San Jacinto College’s Board of trustees, where she was the first female trustee elected; and her lifelong involvement in the South Belt / Ellington community.

“People thought of her as the mayor of South Belt,” said Brenda Hellyer, Chancellor of San Jacinto College. “She called me once and said she would be late because she was helping a neighbor with a fallen tree. I asked, ‘Why do they need your help?’ and she said, ‘Because they know I know who to call to make sure it gets dealt with.’”

In lieu of flowers, Flickinger’s family asks that the community donate to the San Jacinto College scholarship fund. 

Making deadlines

Flickinger was born September 1, 1942. In her early career, she broke into journalism after being recruited by a Friendswood News editor, despite being a housewife with no work experience.

She learned the ropes covering issues around Pasadena ISD and in the South Belt / Ellington community. But eventually, fed up with criticism of her work, Flickinger decided to leave to create her own newspaper, according to San Jacinto College. In 1976, she and her friend Bobby Griffin co-founded the South Belt-Ellington Leader (formerly the South Belt Press). 

Flickinger served as publisher of the weekly print newspaper until her passing. Her son, Davy Flickinger, will now help steward the paper as it approaches its 50th anniversary this February, though he’s unsure of the paper’s future without his mother. 

As publisher, Flickinger was known for having a can-do attitude. When Bechtle, the paper’s sports writer, was younger, he would often butt heads with Flickinger over details and deadlines. But as he grew up, he realized her attitude was a function of the industry she had chosen.

“We lost an icon yesterday,” Bechtle said. “I can make a phone call, and I can tell when people are brushing me off, but then I mention I work for Marie Flickinger, you can tell that they change how they act. People pick up the phone when Marie calls.”

“Our business is completely deadline driven,” Bechtle continued. “You either enjoy it or you don’t, and I think Marie always enjoyed it. She would have been perfectly happy to have ended in her desk chair.”

At home, Flickinger loved cooking for her family. Even if she wasn’t feeling well enough to do so, she wouldn’t let anyone help her, as “she was always very strong-willed,” Davy Flickinger said.

“I will miss her not as the newspaper, not as the person who helped her community, but as my mother,” her son continued. “That’s who she was to me.” 

South Belt’s Erin Brokovich

The South Belt Ellington-Leader hit a financial rough patch in the late 1980s when Flickinger started digging into what would become her magnum opus: the Brio superfund site, a former chemical refinery site in east Harris County that caused air and groundwater contamination. 

At first, the Leader published articles about how the air, water and soil at the Brio site were safe — because that’s what the Environmental Protection Agency and local leaders told Flickinger. 

“The big problem was we had Harris County, the state, the feds, everybody said we were wrong, that everything was fine, everything was under control, nobody was being exposed (to toxicity),” Flickinger said in a 2019 interview with KHOU. “I believed it in the beginning. But then digging into it, it just didn’t make sense.”

The tone of her work changed once she began knocking doors in the 677-home subdivision neighboring the Brio site, speaking with impacted residents. Then, she used the paper to platform stories about mothers living adjacent to the site whose children experienced birth defects. 

“It was not a fun thing to work with, because you were fighting everybody,” Flickinger said in an interview with the Landing last week. “We fought (the Environmental Protection Agency), we fought Monsanto (an agrochemical company), we fought the state, we fought 200 other chemical companies along with Monsanto. I had gained close to 100 pounds during that time. It was a very stressful time.”

Flickinger’s work paid off when the Southbend subdivision and its school, Weber Elementary, were “demolished” because of the nearby contamination, according to the Leader’s history webpage. 

Her work was controversial at the time, with some in the community pulling ads from the paper, blaming her for halting the community’s growth. But Flickinger established a reputation as a local Erin Brokovich, credited for uncovering the impact of the site’s toxicity. 

Fighting a little less

In 1995, Flickinger found herself becoming even more involved in her community, this time as a public servant.

She never planned to run for election to San Jacinto College’s Board of Trustees. She said she has the late John Moore Sr, a prominent Pasadena businessman, to thank for that — he wasn’t happy with a trustee candidate, and he wanted Flickinger to run. 

Flickinger agreed, and once elected, she fell in love with the work. It was a welcome change from the darker topics she’d been immersed in reporting on the Brio site. 

“With Brio, every time we were successful at proving that we were right, it meant that there were kids and adults that had had serious health problems,” Flickinger said. “With San Jac, when we arrive and do something good, it means that kids are learning and doing well. It was the total opposite of what I experienced with Brio. But a lot more fun, and I wasn’t fighting anybody.”

One of her proudest accomplishments on the board, she said, was combating the rising cost of textbooks through an “Open Books initiative,” which helps students access free or cheaper online course materials. Building upon the college’s relationship with the school district, Flickinger also convinced then-Pasadena ISD superintendent, Dr. Kirk Lewis, to pilot an early college program at Pasadena High School. Thanks to its success, the district now offers early college programs at both high schools.

Chancellor Hellyer remembers Flickinger as both an incisive critic and a champion of student success. Over time, Flickinger became a mentor to her, she said.

“You needed to have your ducks in a row, you needed to have done your research, because Marie wanted to know the real answer,” Hellyer said.

Flickinger served as trustee for two months shy of 30 years. She retired roughly a week before she died. She hated to leave the board, she told the Landing in an interview, but felt it was time as her health continued to decline.

Through all the accolades and celebrations — including scholarships and buildings named in her honor — Flickinger seemed to downplay her role in the community, Hellyer said. When planning her retirement ceremony, Flickinger didn’t think they could fill the venue and asked to move to a smaller room.

“I said, ‘Oh my God, how do you not realize the number of people that were impacted by you?’” Hellyer said. 

Miranda covers Houston’s community colleges in partnership with Open Campus. Despite roughly half of Houston’s higher-education students attending community colleges, there hasn’t been much news covering these systems or students — until now. Her reporting holds institutions accountable, highlights barriers faced by students and helps them navigate their opportunities. Reach Miranda at miranda@houstonlanding.org or on Twitter and Instagram.

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