Oscar Jackson Smyrl Jr., 1923-2007

Longtime illustrator and newspaper cartoonist Oscar Jackson "Jak" Smyrl died Tuesday at his home in Camden, South Carolina. He was born in Camden in 1923, and spent the majority of his childhood and teen years in the throes of the Great Depression. It was there he learned to draw as a low-cost amusement source for his various siblings.

Smyrl attended Auburn University before World War II. After serving in the US Marines in the Pacific and then for a while after the war stationed in China, he sought further education in Pennsylvania and California and eventually landed a job with the State and Columbia Record. He would become staff artist at those publications for 32 years, contributing memorable comic maps to State Magazine and sketches to the Smokey the Bear fire prevention campaign. He was also a noted caricaturist.

Jak Smyrl is survived by his wife, Betty. They married in 1958.
 
posted 3:06 am PST | Permalink
 

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