Amadee Wohlschlaeger (December 3, 1911 – June 24, 2014) was a 20th-century American sports cartoonist in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. He was known professionally as simply "Amadee", which was how he signed his cartoons. He was a long-time sports cartoonist for the

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-De ...

, in an era when newspaper sports pages usually included a prominent cartoon. He drew the ''

Weatherbird The Weatherbird is a cartoon character and a single-panel comic. It is printed on the front of the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' and has been in the paper continuously since 1901, making it the longest-running American newspaper cartoon and a masco ...

'' cartoon for more than 49 years.

Life and career

Wohlschlaeger was born on December 3, 1911, in St. Louis and grew up in the Carondelet neighborhood in the far south of that city, where he developed a passion for drawing when a small child. He did not attend high school (although he did later take art classes at

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

). His father was a printer with the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', and the younger Wohlschlaeger took a job there at age 14, as a copy boy earning $7.50 (about $ in dollars) a week. In 1929, at age 17, he was hired into the paper's art department. In 1932, Wohlschlaeger became the fourth artist to draw the ''Post-Dispatch's''

, which was created in 1901 and remains in continuous daily use. He drew the Weatherbird, usually accompanied by a pithy observation on current events, from 1932 to 1981. His Weatherbird marked D-Day, the

assassination of John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle with ...

, and many other notable events. He was succeeded as illustrator by

Albert Schweitzer Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (; 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was an Alsatian-German/French polymath. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. A Lutheran minister, Schweit ...

. Wohlschlaeger drew his first sports cartoon for the paper in 1936. Among his contributions was his "Cardinals Camp Capers" cartoon, sent in from spring training. In 1939, he filled in as the Post-Dispatch's editorial cartoonist, drawing caricatures of Hitler and Mussolini as well as local politicians. Wohlschlaeger drew many covers for the '' Sporting News'', which was then produced in St. Louis and known as "The Baseball Bible". He also drew covers for

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

football programs for more than 30 years, and covers for the annual St. Louis Baseball Writers dinner. Wohlschlaeger retired in 1981. He was inducted into the

Missouri Sports Hall of Fame The Missouri Sports Hall of Fame is located in Springfield, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1994 by Springfield businessman John Q. Hammons, the Hall of Fame is housed in a two-story, 32,000-square-foot building. On display are more than 4, ...

in 1992. Wohlschlaeger was married to Violet Wohlschlaeger; they had a son, Amadee Wohlschlaeger Jr. Wohlschlaeger died June 24, 2014, in St. Louis County.

References

Publications

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wohlschlaeger, Amadee 1911 births 2014 deaths American cartoonists American comics artists American centenarians Men centenarians Artists from St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis alumni