Helen Elna Hokinson was born in Mendota, Lasalle Co., Il. to Adoplh and Mary Hokinson. Her father was a farm machinery salesman & her mother was the daughter of the well known lecturer, Phineas Wilcox, known as the Carpenter Orator.
Helen Hokinson graduated from Mendota High School in 1913. She studied art in Chicago at the Academy of Fine Arts and began drawing fashion illustrations for department stores, including Marshall Fields. From Chicago she went to New York where she continued her studies, did fashion illustrations and tried cartooning with a comic strip which failed.
The New Yorker Magazine was founded in 1925 and Helen submitted one of her drawings to the editors. It was accepted. She was asked to continue sending drawings each week for possible publication. It is said that 1,700 Hokinson cartoons were printed.
Her drawings for the New Yorker magazine featured plump well-to-do club women who wore high heeled shoes and were conscious of hats, fashion, caring for pets, and gardens.
Helen Hokinson published several books of her own cartoons: So You're Going To Buy A Book in 1931, My Best Girls in 1941, and 1948 her last book, When Were You Built?
Helen died in 1949 when the plane she was riding crashed into a Bolivian fighter plane and plummeted into the Potomac River in Washington D.C..
Helen Hokinson graduated from Mendota High School in 1913. She studied art in Chicago at the Academy of Fine Arts and began drawing fashion illustrations for department stores, including Marshall Fields. From Chicago she went to New York where she continued her studies, did fashion illustrations and tried cartooning with a comic strip which failed.
The New Yorker Magazine was founded in 1925 and Helen submitted one of her drawings to the editors. It was accepted. She was asked to continue sending drawings each week for possible publication. It is said that 1,700 Hokinson cartoons were printed.
Her drawings for the New Yorker magazine featured plump well-to-do club women who wore high heeled shoes and were conscious of hats, fashion, caring for pets, and gardens.
Helen Hokinson published several books of her own cartoons: So You're Going To Buy A Book in 1931, My Best Girls in 1941, and 1948 her last book, When Were You Built?
Helen died in 1949 when the plane she was riding crashed into a Bolivian fighter plane and plummeted into the Potomac River in Washington D.C..
Helen Elna Hokinson was born in Mendota, Lasalle Co., Il. to Adoplh and Mary Hokinson. Her father was a farm machinery salesman & her mother was the daughter of the well known lecturer, Phineas Wilcox, known as the Carpenter Orator.
Helen Hokinson graduated from Mendota High School in 1913. She studied art in Chicago at the Academy of Fine Arts and began drawing fashion illustrations for department stores, including Marshall Fields. From Chicago she went to New York where she continued her studies, did fashion illustrations and tried cartooning with a comic strip which failed.
The New Yorker Magazine was founded in 1925 and Helen submitted one of her drawings to the editors. It was accepted. She was asked to continue sending drawings each week for possible publication. It is said that 1,700 Hokinson cartoons were printed.
Her drawings for the New Yorker magazine featured plump well-to-do club women who wore high heeled shoes and were conscious of hats, fashion, caring for pets, and gardens.
Helen Hokinson published several books of her own cartoons: So You're Going To Buy A Book in 1931, My Best Girls in 1941, and 1948 her last book, When Were You Built?
Helen died in 1949 when the plane she was riding crashed into a Bolivian fighter plane and plummeted into the Potomac River in Washington D.C..
Helen Hokinson graduated from Mendota High School in 1913. She studied art in Chicago at the Academy of Fine Arts and began drawing fashion illustrations for department stores, including Marshall Fields. From Chicago she went to New York where she continued her studies, did fashion illustrations and tried cartooning with a comic strip which failed.
The New Yorker Magazine was founded in 1925 and Helen submitted one of her drawings to the editors. It was accepted. She was asked to continue sending drawings each week for possible publication. It is said that 1,700 Hokinson cartoons were printed.
Her drawings for the New Yorker magazine featured plump well-to-do club women who wore high heeled shoes and were conscious of hats, fashion, caring for pets, and gardens.
Helen Hokinson published several books of her own cartoons: So You're Going To Buy A Book in 1931, My Best Girls in 1941, and 1948 her last book, When Were You Built?
Helen died in 1949 when the plane she was riding crashed into a Bolivian fighter plane and plummeted into the Potomac River in Washington D.C..
Bio by: Linda Knowlton
