Ruth O'Neal Belew (January 21, 1898 – August 7, 1973) was an American illustrator. She created the rear cover artwork of at least 150 Dell

Mapback Mapback is a term used by paperback collectors to refer to the earliest paperback books published by Dell Books, beginning in 1943. The books are known as mapbacks because the back cover of the book contains a map that illustrates the location ...

novels between 1942–1951. Belew also served as the letterer for the ''

Mary Worth ''Mary Worth'' is an American newspaper comic strip that has had an eight-decade run from 1938. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, this soap opera-style strip influenced several that followed. It was created by writer Allen Saunders and art ...

'' comic strip from its inception as ''

Apple Mary ''Mary Worth'' is an American newspaper comic strip that has had an eight-decade run from 1938. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, this soap opera-style strip influenced several that followed. It was created by writer Allen Saunders and art ...

'' in 1935 until the early 1970s.

Early years

Born in

Aurelia, Iowa Aurelia is a city in Cherokee County, Iowa, United States. The population was 968 at the 2020 census. History Aurelia was founded in 1873 as a stop along the Illinois Central Railroad branch connecting Sioux City, Iowa, to Chicago, Illinois. Thi ...

, Belew attended

Morningside College Morningside University is a private university affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Sioux City, Iowa. Founded in 1894 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, Morningside University has 21 buildings on a campus in Sioux City (ar ...

Sioux City, Iowa Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury and Plymouth counties in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Iowa. The bulk of the city is in Woodbury County, ...

, but did not graduate. She then moved to Chicago, where she worked for a time as a ballet dancer with the

Chicago Civic Opera Company The Civic Opera Company (1922–1931) was a Chicago company that produced seven seasons of grand opera in the Auditorium Theatre from 1922 to 1928, and three seasons at its own Civic Opera House from 1929 to 1931 before falling victim to financia ...

before becoming a freelance illustrator. Belew lived in Chicago for most of her life until relocating to

Fort Myers, Florida Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in southwestern Florida and the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 92,245 in 20 ...

, in the late 1960s.

Mary Worth

Ruth Belew was the letterer for the ''Apple Mary'' comic strip, created by Martha Orr, from its inception in 1935.

Allen Saunders Allen Saunders (April 24, 1899 – January 28, 1986) was an American writer, journalist and cartoonist who wrote the comic strips '' Steve Roper and Mike Nomad'', ''Mary Worth'' and '' Kerry Drake''. He is credited with being the originator of t ...

, who had created the ''

Steve Roper and Mike Nomad ''Steve Roper and Mike Nomad'' was an American adventure comic strip that ran (under various earlier titles) from November 23, 1936, to December 26, 2004. Originally ''Big Chief Wahoo'', the focus and title character of the strip changed over t ...

'' strip in 1936, was asked to take over as writer when Orr left the strip in 1939 to start a family. Saunders changed the name of the strip to ''Mary Worth'' and brought in artist

Ken Ernst Kenneth Frederic Ernst (1918 – August 6, 1985) was a US comic book and comic strip artist. He is most notable for his work on the popular and long-running comic strip ''Mary Worth'' from 1942 to 1985.''Contemporary Graphic Artists'' By Gale Rese ...

, but retained Belew as letterer. Saunders, who was based in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

, would work with Ernst, who was based in California who would then ship the strips to Belew in Chicago for lettering.

Dell Mapbacks

Dell's earliest paperbacks featured a map on the back cover depicting some element of the book, whether it was a city block, and apartment, or a cattle trail in the old west. This innovative idea has made Dell's "Mapback" books coveted among collectors. In his catalog-index of Dell paperbacks, William Lyles theorized that Ruth Belew drew nearly all of the more than 500 maps that appeared on the back of Dell paperbacks between 1942–1951, though because records of Dell's artists are scarce, he was only able to confirm that she had drawn around 150.

Later life and death

Ruth Belew relocated to Fort Myers, Florida, in the late 1960s, where she continued to work on the ''Mary Worth'' daily strip. Belew died on August 7, 1973, in Fort Myers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Belew, Ruth ONeal 1898 births 1973 deaths American women illustrators 20th-century American illustrators Comic book letterers People from Cherokee County, Iowa Artists from Chicago