John kelso biography austin

John Kelso, the bard of South Austin, an involuntary native and vigorous tormentor of Oklahoma, the author of three humor books and a four-decade fixture in the pages of the Austin American-Statesman as well as hearts of his readers and newsroom colleagues, died Friday.

Kelso, an endlessly funny writer and genuinely sweet guy, was 73.

Going on 12.

He died Friday from complications after a recent fall. He had been weakened by a second bout with cancer, which befell him in 2015 and stilled his ready wit and raucous staccato laugh after surgeons were forced to remove his larynx.

Even so, he continued to write his Sunday column, which he had done for the newspaper since his retirement from the American-Statesman in 2011.

His last column, bemoaning his lack of home repair skills and the difficulty of finding a good handyman, ran July 2.

“I was starting to think it would be easier to find a bag of crack,” he wrote. “I