| Heloise | |
| Birth Name: | Eloise Bowles |
| Birth Date: | 4 May 1919 |
| Nationality: | American |
| Citizenship: | United States |
| Occupation: | Newspaper columnist, author |
Heloise Bowles Cruse (May 4, 1919 - December 28, 1977[1] [2]) was the original author of the popular syndicated newspaper column "Hints from Heloise."[3] [4]
Born in Fort Worth, Texas,[3] Bowles married Marshal (Mike) Holman Cruse, a United States Air Force captain (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.[1] [3] 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.[6]
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.