Linda Walter – who co-created the Susie Q. Smith caricature within the Nineteen Forties with then-husband Harold ‘Jerry’ Walter – could have her stays laid to rest this week. The cartoonist and illustrator had died in 2009 however with out recognized descendants her cremated stays had been left unclaimed at a neighborhood funeral house in Upstate New York, solely to be found by a volunteer at Wiltwyck Rural Cemetery. A memorial service and burial will happen on Thursday on the Woodstock Artists Cemetery.
On June 28, Wiltwyck Rural Cemetery posted to Facebook, saying:
“The Woodstock community and the artistic world at large are invited to join in a heartfelt memorial service and burial to honor the life and artistic contributions of the late illustrator Linda Walter. The talented mind behind the beloved Susie Q. Smith comic strip, Linda’s memorial service will take place on Thursday, July 6, 2023 at 1:00pm at the Woodstock Artists Cemetery. Despite the absence of known descendants, it is our sincere hope that the artistic community will come together to celebrate Linda’s remarkable life and pay tribute to her exceptional artwork.”
Wiltwyck element the way it took so lengthy to lay the creator to rest:
“For many years, Linda’s cremated remains went unclaimed at a local funeral home and were recently delivered to the Mausoleum at Wiltwyck Cemetery in Kingston NY. In a touching discovery, the dedicated volunteer staff at Wiltwyck Cemetery uncovered information that a plot of land in the Woodstock Artists Cemetery had been reserved years ago as Linda’s final resting place. In light of this revelation, it is only fitting that Linda’s memorial service and burial be held at the place she was intended to rest eternally, surrounded by the artistic community she was an integral part of.”
Linda Walter was a part of a artistic staff behind quite a lot of syndicated comedian strips within the mid ‘40s, earlier than discovering success with the character Susie Q. Smith.
According to caricature historian Allan Holtz, on his Stripper’s Guide weblog:
“Susie Q. Smith, whose title was often abbreviated by lazy typesetters as just Susie Q, debuted with King Features on the first day of 1945, and garnered enough clients to be considered at least a modest success. The panel about a teenage girl hit all the familiar hot buttons — dating, school, dealing with parents and siblings. What set it apart, at least slightly, was that it was unusually frank about Susie’s romantic life. Susie and her pals are often depicted in the midst of communal make-out sessions, something you’d rarely if ever see in the typically modest teenage features like Harold Teen, Aggie Mack and the like. For some reason the newspaper comics page could not rise to the level of frankness of popular movies and radio shows, and teens in the newspaper were, other than Susie, almost embarrassingly unsexual.”
The Susie Q. Smith cartoon – with a byline of “Linda and Jerry Walter” – started as a single panel strip at King Features in early 1945 earlier than increasing into an extended type strip following a transfer to the McNaught Syndicate in 1953. The strip continued to run till November 28, 1959. Typically Jerry wrote the story and Linda would work on the artwork. Dell Comics produced a comic book e book version of the title for 4 points between 1951 to 1954, containing solely authentic materials. Prior to Susie Q. Smith, the pair had an earlier success with Jellybean Jones, below the shared pseudonym Frank Walter, which ran from March 1946 to January 1950.
The Susie Q. Smith strip has usually been in contrast thematically and visually with Archie Comics, which predated the strip by a number of years. Toonopedia says it was “not exactly an imitator, because Archie, who had started only four years earlier, hadn’t yet become popular enough to spawn imitators” including that the Susie Q. Smith strip fell extra into being “part of his genre.” That mentioned, the dramatically rising reputation of Archie within the Nineteen Fifties has been thought of an element within the downfall of the Susie Q. Smith strip. The Walters rebounded with a brand new single-panel cartoon that centered across the lives of senior residents. The Lively Ones (additionally titled The Oldtimers) ran for an all-too-brief two years, from May 1965 to February 1967, initially at Newsday Specials earlier than shifting to Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate.
Regarding Linda Walter’s personal life, data is tough to come by. A publish by Alex Jay on the aforementioned Stripper’s Guide weblog attests to this and tracked down some particulars. It is believed that Linda might have been born in 1918 as Ethelynde Stimpson, and married Harold in October 1940. She was born in New Jersey however grew up round Westchester County. Census information has her working as a secretary for a welding and metallic firm in Cranford, New Jersey. After marriage, the pair labored for a time at an promoting company and resided in Woodstock. Linda Walter was seemingly divorced from her artistic companion Harold, who died in November 2007. His obituary mentions one other spouse who pre-deceased him in January of that 12 months. Both are buried in Pine View Cemetery, Warren County, New York. Linda’s final recognized residence was Lake Hill, Ulster County, New York.
The memorial service and burial will happen Thursday, July 6, 2023, at 1:00 pm on the Woodstock Artists Cemetery. Contact Matthew Sirni for extra data. 845-331-0199
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