Harry Clay Withers, editor, was born on November 20, 1880, at Denton, the son of John Allen and Mary (Coleman) Withers.

He was educated in the public schools of Denton and at the Haskell Institute, Durant, Oklahoma. At the age of nineteen he enlisted in the Thirty-Third United States Volunteer Infantry during the Spanish-American War and took part in sixteen engagements in the Philippine Insurrection campaign (1899–1901).

He began his newspaper career with the Denton Record Chronicle in 1901. After a brief period with the Houston Post in 1903 he joined the editorial staff of the Dallas Morning News in 1904. He was married to Annie Sinclair on January 23, 1907. Withers advanced from reporter to sports editor of the Dallas Morning News in 1905; later he became its city editor, managing editor, and executive editor, except for the period when he worked for that newspaper's affiliate, the Dallas Journal, as city editor (1914–18) and managing editor (1918–38). During and after World War II, while he was managing editor of the Dallas Morning News, he wrote numerous analytical news articles, most of which were also broadcast over Radio Station WFAA. Withers was one of the originators of the Dallas Crime Commission, a chairman of the board of development of Southern Methodist University, and a director of the A. H. Belo Corporation. He was awarded an honorary LL.D. degree by Southwestern University in 1947.

He died on April 24, 1959, at Dallas and was buried in Hillcrest Memorial Cemetery.

In a resolution by Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson in the United States Senate, Withers was described as the dean of Texas newspaper editors, and the Senate voted to adjourn on May 7, 1959, in his memory.

[Published by the Texas State Historical Association, Sam Hanna Acheson, Handbook of Texas Online, June 15, 2010]

Harry C Withers Elementary School, 3959 Northhaven Road, Dallas, Texas was built in 1961 and named after Mr Withers.