Donald Trachte (May 21, 1915 – May 4, 2005) was an American cartoonist known for his work on the comic strip ''

Henry Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

''.

Personal life

Trachte was born in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

in 1915. He graduated from Central High School in Madison, attended the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

and later served in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

as a lieutenant. The Trachte family lived in Sandgate, Vermont for many years. Trachte died in 2005 in the neighboring city of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Career

He started working on comics in 1932 as an assistant of Carl Thomas Anderson at age 17, after taking art classes from Anderson in high school. He worked on the Sunday version of the ''

'' comics from Anderson's death in 1948 until 1995. ( John Liney worked on the daily comics.) While living in Vermont, Trachte became friends with a group of artists that included

Norman Rockwell Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of Culture of the United States, the country's culture. Roc ...

, Grandma Moses, and

Mead Schaeffer Mead Schaeffer (July 15, 1898 – November 6, 1980) was an :American illustrators, American illustrator active from the early to middle twentieth century. Biography Schaeffer was born in Freedom Plains, New York, in 1898, the son of Presbyt ...

. The Trachte family lived in Schaeffer's old house, which Trachte bought from him in 1950.

Norman Rockwell replica

A discovery in 2006 revealed that Trachte created a near-perfect replica of Rockwell's '' Breaking Home Ties'' as well as several other original works that he owned, ostensibly in order to protect them. An article in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' speculated that he may have made the copies in order to keep his wife from getting them after their divorce. Upon the discovery of the original ''Breaking Home Ties'' by his sons, it was sold at auction for $15 million, a record at the time for a Rockwell.

References

External links

Lambiek: Don Trachte

from ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

'' 1915 births 2005 deaths American comic strip cartoonists American military personnel of World War II University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni {{US-cartoonist-stub