Cleverley Stone, legend in Houston restaurant scene & FOX 26 food contributor, passes away

HOUSTON - It is with heavy hearts that we announce the loss of a member of our FOX 26 family.

FOX 26 Food Contributor Cleverley Stone put up a valiant battle against cancer, but after months of treatment, she lost that fight.

Cleverley Stone was loving. Funny. Giving. Enthusiastic.

Those are just a few of many ways to describe our long-time colleague and friend at the news station.

Cleverley introduced you to every award-winning chef in town during her 12 years at FOX 26. 

The inviting aromas from her "Cooking with Cleverley" segments would draw everyone at the station into our studio.

She gave you a variety, taking you LIVE into some of Houston's finest dining establishments and then enticing your taste buds with Houston food trucks.

 It was always food and fun with Cleverley.

She loved to sing, and would find a way to add melody on the set.

We also never knew what to expect next because many days involved hilarious costumes.

Her creative ways could easily draw you into her cooking set.

Cleverley has been all over Houston's Food Scene, since she began writing a newsletter in the 90s.

You could even get advice from Cleverley during her 17 years at 650 AM Radio, where she produced and her hosted her own Food Talk Show.

It's impossible to measure just how much Cleverley helped the Houston community, but how's this for a start?

Nearly $17 million!

That's how much she raised for the Houston Food Bank through Houston Restaurant Weeks.

It was her idea to have local restaurants invite patrons in, allow them to dine there for a fraction of the typical cost, and then donate a portion of the proceeds to the Houston Food Bank.

This is a project that Cleverley single-handedly organized five months out of each year.

She is one of the only founders of any Restaurant Weeks to devote hours and hours of her time organizing and never took a dime of compensation. Cleverley did it all for free.

That was her giving spirit.

Even though it was a full-time job, she did it from her heart. She wanted 100% of the proceeds to go to the Houston Food Bank.

On her birthday this year, in the typical Cleverley fashion, she asked for only one thing: she urged every woman to know the signs and symptoms of uterine cancer.

That's because during her busiest time of year, Restaurant Weeks of 2019, Cleverley was diagnosed with stage-4 uterine cancer.

She wants to make her life count through you, and remind you that early detection equals a better prognosis. 

Cleverley was not only a hard-working colleague but also a loving mom.

She leaves behind a daughter, many friends, and her loving FOX family.

Thank you for making our lives brighter, Cleverley.

We will miss you.

Cleverley Stone was 69 years old.