Obit: Charles Hillinger, the Los Angeles Times’ retired roving feature writer and columnist who traversed the highways and byways of California, America and beyond in pursuit of colorful characters and human-interest stories, has died. He was 82.
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As a Times reporter, Hillinger had his share of interesting assignments.
He covered the Beatles during their visit to Los Angeles in 1964 to perform at the Hollywood Bowl, providing a behind-the-scenes report on the “mop-haired Liverpudlians” as they relaxed in their Bel-Air hideaway, where they swam and played cowboys with toy pistols sent over by Elvis Presley.
He also was aboard the aircraft carrier Hornet in 1969 to report on the historic splash-down in the Pacific of the Apollo 11 mission-to-the-moon astronauts — “back home from man’s greatest adventure.”
But it’s for his stories about people from all walks of life — and their sometimes unusual pursuits — that Hillinger is best remembered.
He called them “slices of America” and they were, as former Times publisher Otis Chandler once put it, “a lively and refreshing contrast to the hard news stories of the day.”
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