Famed Foodie And Dallas Media Maven Dotty Griffith Dies At 71

DALLAS, TX — What didn't Dotty Griffith do in her 71 years as a media maven?

Griffith was a titan among Texas journalists. She worked as a food columnist and reporter for nearly four decades at The Dallas Morning News, made TV appearances and had her own KRLD call-in radio program, "In The Kitchen with Dotty. Until recently, she also taught at the University of North Texas and penned articles for the Katy Trail Weekly.

Dotty Griffith died Monday due to complications from pancreatic cancer.

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"She wrote for me for years, and we were close friends," said David Mullen, editor-in-chief of the Weekly. "We got to know each other well over the last six or seven years of her life."

Mullen remembers her calling him in late May to say that she "was suffering from lack of energy and lots of lethargy, and — the way she put it — she was given 'an expiration date.'"

Upon reflection, Mullen said he was attracted to her work because "there's a predetermined perception of a food critic, and she broke the mold."

"She was extremely kind, and understood the back of the kitchen better than anyone I'd ever met in that position," he said. "That's probably because she was an accomplished a cook as a writer, and understood the challenges people face in preparing meals."

In addition, he recalled, she was a "wonderful dinner guest, and I dined out and at home with her many times and she took great pride in both."

"Not only that, but she was always true to her roots," he said. "We attended a handful of Texas/OU games together, and I got to see another great side of her. She dropped being Dotty and was just a Longhorns fan."

Griffith is best known for the 10 years she spent as The Dallas Morning News Food Section editor, and became the paper's dining critic in 1996. She was also the author of a dozen Tex-centric cookbooks, including "The Texas Holiday Cookbook" and "Celebrating Barbecue."

She was raised in Terrell and was a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where she wrote for the Daily Texan as a journalism major and first covered news and politics at the Dallas Morning News before being named editor of the paper's food section in 1977.

She steered a course through life that could only be called hers, having spent five years working for the Austin ACLU, and occasionally indulging in one of her hobbies — hunting.

Griffith is survived by daughter Caitlin Stephenson Porto, son Kelly Griffith Stephenson and three grandchildren.

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