Hubert Harper
Hubert Hill Harper (born June 6, 1887 in Pleasantview, Tennessee; died November 1957) was a political cartoonist for the Birmingham Age-Herald and The Birmingham News from 1919 until his death from cancer at age 70.
Harper, the son of William and Lila Harper of Southside, Tennessee, started publishing cartoons for The Black Patch Tobacco Journal in Springfield, Tennessee in 1907. He joined the staff of the Daily Oklahoman in 1910, but only remained for two months. He took work as a traveling salesmen and settled in Birmingham in 1916. He joined the staff of the Age-Herald in 1919, working there until 1927. During that time he polished Alabama Power Company commercial manager Ashton Collins' concept sketches for the character of Reddy Kilowatt.
Harper took a five year break from cartooning before rejoining the paper in 1932. In 1948 he helped colleague Charles Brooks land an interview to become the staff cartoonist for The Birmingham News. Harper joined him on the News staff in 1950.
Harper's first wife, Anna, 25, of Nashville, Tennessee, was a passenger in a seaplane piloted by Albert Whitted which crashed at Santa Rosa, Florida on August 19, 1923, killing all five aboard.
Harper was diagnosed with cancer in the Fall of 1957 and succumbed the following November. He was survived by his second wife, Nelle, and by two sons, Hubert Jr and Dickey.
References
- "Body Taken Home" (August 20, 1923) St. Petersburg Times
- "The Passing Of Hubert Harper" (November 3, 1957) Gadsden Times
External links
- 1938 photograph of Harper in the Alabama Media Group Collection at the Alabama Department of Archives and History