Today, the Leader says goodbye to editorial cartoonist Judy Dixon, who is leaving Jefferson County to live closer to extended family.
Since joining the Leader staff on Jan. 15, 1998, Dixon has won numerous state and national awards for her work, and in 2014 was named to the Missouri Press Association Hall of Fame.
Dixon, who is 94, was already in her 70s when she began her stint at the Leader, proving that creative energy can remain strong and vibrant in our sunset years.
Most of her time at the Leader, Dixon partnered with retired editor and publisher Patrick Martin to create incisive and humorous editorial commentary, week after week.
Farewell, Judy
The two met while working elsewhere and Martin recognized Dixon’s talent. A few years after the Leader opened its doors, he recruited Dixon to join the team.
“Judy brought a professional, big-league talent most small-town newspapers could only dream of,” Martin said. “I had the privilege and good fortune to collaborate with her for more than 30 years at two different companies. She could deliver a well-pointed barb, but usually with a sense of whimsy and fun.
“A columnist has 800 words to make a point and sometimes misses the mark. Judy could get the job done with one devastating, bull’s-eye cartoon.
“That’s why she’s in the Missouri Press Association Hall of Fame.”
Dixon’s cartoons win awards every year in the Missouri Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest and have gained national notice in the contest hosted by the National Newspaper Association.
But accolades don’t drive Dixon, who said at the time of her Hall of Fame selection that she was born to draw.
“I drew my first recognizable figure at age 2,” she said. “And my father, who also was an artist, was thrilled. He rushed out and got every available material to encourage me. There was never any question that I would work as an artist. I love it.”
Before becoming a pointy-penned satirist, Dixon was an illustrator for Concordia Publishing in St. Louis, her first job after graduating with a fine arts degree from Washington University in 1949.
Eventually, she worked in the advertising department at the News Democrat in the Twin Cities, where she and Martin met.
Dixon and her late husband, Lee, a professional fundraiser, raised five children. They moved 27 times to locations across the country before returning to Dixon’s hometown of Festus in 1977.
Today’s edition includes some of our favorites of Dixon’s cartoons for the Leader, including a self-portrait of her at her artist’s desk that she drew in 2014.
Enjoy.
