Died 24 June 2014 | ||
Amadee Wohlschlaeger (1911–2014) was a 20th-century American sports cartoonist in St. Louis. He was known professionally as just "Amadee" as he signed his cartoons that way. He was long-time sports cartoonist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in an era when newspaper sports pages usually featured a prominent cartoon as an essential element of their layout.
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Life and career
Wohlschlaeger was born on December 3, 1911 in St. Louis and grew up in the Carondelet neighborhood in the far south of that city, where he developed a passion for drawing when a small child. He did not attend high school (although he did later take art classes at Washington University), starting at age 14 at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where his father was a printer, as a copy boy earning $7.50 (about $102.42 in 2017 dollars) a week. In 1929 at age 17 he was hired into the paper's art department.
In 1932, Wohlschlaeger took over as the artist for the Post-Dispatch's Weatherbird, which was created in 1901 and remains in continuous daily use. He was the fourth artist to draw the Weatherbird. Wohlschlaeger drew the Weatherbird, usually accompanied by a pithy observation on current events, for almost fifty years, from 1932 to 1981. His Weatherbird marked D-Day, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and many other notable events.
Wohlschlaeger drew his first sports cartoon for the paper in 1936. Among his contributions was his "Cardinals Camp Capers" cartoon, sent in from spring training.
In 1939 he filled in as the Post-Dispatch's editorial cartoonist, drawing caricatures of Hitler and Mussolini as well as local politicians.
Wohlschlaeger drew many covers for the Sporting News, which was then produced in St. Louis and known as "The Baseball Bible". He also drew covers for University of Missouri football programs for over thirty years, and covers for the annual St. Louis Baseball Writers dinner.
Wohlschlaeger retired in 1981. He was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 1992.
Wohlschlaeger was married to Violet Wohlschlaeger; they had a son, Amadee Wohlschlaeger Jr. Wohlschlaeger died June 24, 2014 in St. Louis County.