Kate Osann was an American cartoonist. She created the comic strip ''Tizzy.''
Syracuse University, 26 January 2009, retrieved 16 November 2010

Biography

Osann was born in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

, Missouri, but grew up in New York City. She graduated from

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

Career

Early in her career, Osann worked on ads and illustrating for such magazines as ''

Collier's Weekly } ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter F. Collier, Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened i ...

'' and ''

Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine published six times a year. It was published weekly from 1897 until 1963, and then every other week until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influ ...

''. Osann was a regular contributor to ''Collier's,'' where her panel style cartoon, ''Tizzy'', first appeared. After the demise of ''Collier's Weekly'' in 1957, ''Tizzy'' cartoons ran with

Newspaper Enterprise Association The Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) is an editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1902. The oldest syndicate still in operation, the NEA was originally a secondary new ...

, until 1970. Tizzy, the title character, was a stereotypical teen-aged American girl. In ''Collier's'', the ''Tizzy'' cartoons were in color and Tizzy's hair was red. The syndicated cartoons were in black and white, and Tizzy's hair was blonde. When the color cartoons were reprinted in black and white in the first Tizzy paperback book, Tizzy's red hair was rendered as black. Tizzy wore

horn-rimmed glasses Horn-rimmed glasses are a type of eyeglasses. Originally made out of either horn or tortoise shell, for most of their history they have actually been constructed out of thick plastics designed to imitate those materials. They are characterized b ...

with triangular lenses. In the ''Collier's'' cartoons, the temples of her glasses were clearly visible. In the syndicated cartoons, the temples were rarely seen, and the frames appeared to be resting on her nose alone.

Books

During the late 1950s and 1960s, three ''Tizzy'' paperback books were published: ''Tizzy: That Loveable, Laughable Teen-Ager'' (Berkeley, 1958), ''More Tizzy'' (Berkeley, 1958), and ''Tizzy'' (Scholastic Book Services 1967). Tizzy cartoons illustrated ''Baby-Sitter's Guide'', by Sharon Sherman (Scholastic Book Services, 1969).

"Kate O'Sann"

Three books were published in the 1970s with her name spelled with an apostrophe, "Kate O'Sann." The book ''Men!'', edited by Kitty Clevenger and Aileen Neighbors, was published by Hallmark Editions in 1974. It was illustrated by Kate O'Sann. The rear flap of the dust jacket was devoted to a self-portrait of Kate O'Sann, and a brief biography of her which reads in part, "Illustrator Kate O'sann, a native of Missouri, grew up in New York City, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree from

and was a member of

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

. She makes her home in

Orlando Orlando commonly refers to: * Orlando, Florida, a city in the United States Orlando may also refer to: People * Orlando (given name), a masculine name, includes a list of people with the name * Orlando (surname), includes a list of people wit ...

, Florida, with her husband, William O. Chessman, and 'two large and vocal children' - William and Kathy." The books ''Kid's Cookery'' and ''Things Girls Like to Draw'' were written and illustrated by Kate O'Sann. They were published in 1979 by International Media Systems, of Longwood, Florida. O'Sann was written with a lower case letter "s" in ''Men!'', but with a capital letter "S" in ''Kid's Cookery'' and ''Things Girls Like to Draw''.

References

External links

Kate Osann Cartoons 1966-1967
at Syracuse University (primary source material) {{DEFAULTSORT:Osann, Kate Year of birth missing (living people) American children's writers American women children's writers American children's book illustrators American women children's book illustrators Artists from St. Louis American women comic strip cartoonists Hunter College alumni Living people American comic strip cartoonists American illustrators American women illustrators American comics artists American comics writers American female comics artists American female comics writers 21st-century American women American humorists American women humorists