Houston, Feb. 7 - Charles Brown Gillespie, 57, vice president and editor of the Houston Chronicle, who died in a Dallas hospital early today, was born at Forney, on Dec. 17, 1872.

He entered the newspaper game when he was 20 years old, buying the weekly Forney Messenger. In 1895 he became city editor of the Brenham Banner, a daily, and later transferred to the competing Brenham Press. In 1901 he moved to Houston and became a reporter on the old Post. He remained there for only a few months, going to the Chronicle on Oct. 14, 1901, the date of its first issue, as city editor. Three years later he became managing editor and held that position until 1920 when he resigned to become associated with W.T. Eldridge at Sugarland. But the smell of the printer's ink was too strong to be forgotten and he returned to the paper for whose first issue he had prepared copy. In 1923 he became vice president and managing editor and in 1926 was made editor.

Tentative funeral arrangements call for burial at 1:30 p.m. Friday at Brenham.