Heloise Bowles Cruse

Heloise Bowles Cruse (May 4, 1919 – December 28, 1977¹² was the original author of the popular syndicated newspaper column "Hints from Heloise."²³⁴

Born in Fort Worth, Texas,¹³ Bowles married Marshal (Mike) Holman Cruse, a United States Air Force captain³ (later colonel) in 1946. Their daughter Ponce Kiah Marchelle Heloise Cruse, born in 1951, is the current "Heloise".³

Bowles Cruse had been exchanging hints with neighboring stay-at-home wives. While at a party she mentioned her wish to start a newspaper column where housewives could share hints. A colonel with two degrees in journalism laughed and bet her $10 she couldn’t get a newspaper job, for she was "nothing but a housewife." The next day she went to the offices of the Honolulu Advertiser and convinced the editor to try her column on a 30-day, no-pay basis.⁵

The original column was first published as "Readers' Exchange" in 1959.¹³ In 1961, King Features syndicated it as "Hints from Heloise";³ nearly 600 newspapers carried the column,¹ and, at the time of her death, it was one of three most popular (in terms of syndication) in the United States.²

Her book Heloise's Housekeeping Hints, published by Prentice-Hall, Inc., was, at half a million copies total, one of the top 10 selling hardcover books in 1963. The book later became the fastest selling paperback in the history of its publisher Pocket Books.¹

• Heloise's Housekeeping Hints (1962)
• Heloise's Kitchen Hints (1963)
• Heloise All Around the House (1965)
• Hints For Working Women (1966)
• Heloise's Work and Money Savers (1967)