Darrell McLure was not the first illustrator of Little Annie Rooney, but he was the best. His mother was California painter Ethel Jameson Docker. McLure was born in Mendocino County 25 February 1903, and his first cartoon was published at 10 years of age in the Ukiah Republican Press. He studied under Harold Von Schmidt and Clarence Mackey. He also studied under the famed George Bridgeman at the Art Student’s League in New York. McClure worked as a lumberjack and sailor on commercial freighters in the Pacific before joining King Features drawing Little Annie Rooney. When he retired from comics he took up painting until his death on 27 February 1987.
*Original artwork courtesy Don Kurtz.