EDITOR'S PAGE

EDITOR'S

FOR LONG TIME READERS of The Arizona Republic, there was a glaring omission in our article on Arizona-based cartoonists in the August issue. Through no fault of the author, Vicky Hay, we neglected to include the late Kearney Egerton, whose newspaper career at the Republic spanned more than 40 years. Egerton was a former colleague and valued friend of mine, and I cannot explain my lapse in failing to list him among the artists I nominated for the article. I hasten to amend the record by enthusiastically acknowledging him as one of the most talented and prolific of Arizona cartoonists. A native of Benson, Kearney grew up in Las Cruces, New Mexico, returning to Arizona to join the staff of the Republic in 1939. Initially hired as a reporter, he soon was enlivening the pages of the newspaper with lighthearted sketches. After service in World War II and two brief absences with other employers, he returned to the Republic in 1947 and settled into a productive role as illustrator and writer that lasted until his death in 1985. Egerton's specialty was the thematic, usually comic drawing that illustrated and gave additional impact to a feature story. He also achieved great popularity with sports fans, who looked forward to his weekly cartoons predicting the outcomes of selected high school and college athletic events. He was a master caricaturist, but his skill at rendering literal, finely executed pen-and-ink portraits underscored his versatility. Fascinated by Arizona's frontier past, Egerton for a time wrote and illustrated a weekly history column. His knowledge of Arizona's early settlements led Don Dedera, then editor of Arizona Highways, to invite him to write "Missing & Presumed Lost," the lead article of the March 1985 issue devoted to ghost towns and lost mines. Another friend and associate of long standing, Lloyd Clark while commiserating with me on the unintentional exclusion of Kearney from the August article predicted that Egerton may very well get the last laugh: "When you approach the Pearly Gates, I can see Kearney standing there alongside St. Peter and announcing with a craggy-faced grin, 'I don't think this guy's name is on the list.'"

When we started work on the cartoonist article, I told Vicky Hay about a comic strip of several decades ago called Canyon Kiddies, which portrayed the adventures of diminutive, ap-pealing Hopi and Navajo children in northeastern Arizona. Unfortunately, I could not recall the name of the strip's creator, and Vicky's research failed to turn up any information on the subject. Predictably, soon after the issue went to press, the name of the artist-Jimmy Swinnerton-came to my attention twice in two days. Actually, a detailed account of Swinnerton's career had been within reach in our own Arizona Highways archives, had we known where to look: an excellent article by Martin Litton (later my colleague at Sunset Magazine) in the January 1951 Highways. An art-school classmate of Maynard Dixon, Swinnerton worked for William Randolph Hearst as a highly successful cartoonist in San Francisco and New York before tuberculosis brought him back west. As his health improved and he discovered the canyon country of northern Arizona, he spent long periods roaming that colorful land with explorer John Wetherill. As a painter, Swinnerton was drawn as irresistibly to Southwestern subjects as was his old classmate Dixon. But the Arizona experience also inspired the sensitive interpretations of the Indians' relationship with Nature reflected in Canyon Kiddies. The 1951 Arizona Highways article was illustrated with seven full-color reproductions of Swinnerton landscapes, along with examples of the artist's famous cartoon characters. At the time Swinnerton was 75, and had been drawing for Hearst publications for 59 years! He lived on to within three months of his 99th birthday.

Two other postscripts to our August article are in order. In her roll call of Arizona cartoonists, Vicky Hay reported that "Fred Rhoads drew Sad Sack comic books and lived in Tucson." Reader F. Les Conner promptly responded, "Your article was most enjoyable.... However, I would like you to know that Fred Rhoads currently lives in Tucson and has for the past 20 years. Fred also is the editorial cartoonist for our daily Tucson Citizen." And, finally, a few readers have asked why George Herriman, the creator of Krazy Kat, was not mentioned in our story. It is true that Arizona backgrounds, including occasional references to the "Coconino Jail," appeared in the popular strip. But as far as Ms. Hay could discover, the artist never lived in Arizona, and visited here relatively briefly.