Hardly a week had passed since we put this year’s Best of Austin issue to bed when we learned that one of our 1992 winners – popular consumer columnist Ellie Rucker – died Tuesday in San Antonio. She was 77.

Rucker, the Statesman‘s intrepid finder of answers to everyday queries, served as a pre-Internet search engine for curious readers for 16 years until retiring in 1992. She was recognized the same year with a Chronicle award for “Best Person To Ask About Finding Concrete Armadillos.”

A memorial service for Rucker will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Porter Loring Mortuary North in San Antonio.

This article appears in September 20 • 2013.

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Amy Smith has been writing about Austin policy and politics for over 20 years. She joined The Austin Chronicle in 1996.