Kate Osann was an American cartoonist. She created the comic strip ''Tizzy.''
Syracuse University, 26 Jan 2009, Retrieved 11/16/2010

Biography

Osann was born 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 ...

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

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 Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Colli ...

'' and '' Saturday Evening Post''. 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 news ...

, 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 Originally made out of either horn or tortoise shell, for most of their history they have actually been constructed out of thick plastics designed to imitate those materials.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 ...

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 Hunter College and was a member of

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

. She makes her home in Orlando, 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 Longwood is a city in Seminole County, Florida, United States. The population was 15,087 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Geography Longwood is located at . According t ...

. 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 Artists from St. Louis American women cartoonists Hunter College alumni Living people American cartoonists 21st-century American women