Ink-Slinger Profiles: Quin Hall

Quin Hall was born in Lacon, Illinois on February 15, 1884. His birthplace was mentioned in an Editor & Publisher article, December 23, 1939, and the birthdate was on his World War I draft card. It's not clear if "Quin" was his first or middle name. He has not been found in the 1900 U.S. Federal Census.

The Emporia Daily Gazette (Kansas), December 28, 1939, published a profile of Hall, and it said:

...Illinois is Quin's home state, Lacon his home town. While still in high school he got to work, after classes were out, on the local weekly as junior reporter and typesetter.

After two years at the University of Illinois, Quin decided he was wasting valuable time. He struck out for the southwest to launch a metropolitan newspaper career. Starting at the bottom (as a shoe clerk in Oklahoma City) he worked his way up in two years to a sports editorship.

The Sunday edition of the paper carried his first drawings, sketches of local events and people. They were so well received that he resolved to change from a writer to an artist. He went to Chicago to study at the Academy of Fine Arts.

In the 1910 census, he lived in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma at 215 West Street. He was a newspaper reporter. The initials "LQ" were recorded by his surname. The Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index, at Ancestry.com, recorded his name as "Lloyd Quin Hall", who married Myrtle Williams on August 2, 1911. The Gazette said, "…After a session with blocks and casts at the Academy, Quin resigned to join the art staff of the Chicago Daily News. Later he was cartoon instructor at the academy, and cartoonist in Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York and Pittsburgh…." In 1914 he contributed Genial Gene and Pinhead Pete to the Chicago Tribune Sunday comics page.

The name on his World War I draft card was "Quin Lloyd Hall" and signed on September 12, 1918. He lived in Chicago at 1401 Winona Street, and worked as an artist for the Daily News. He was described as medium height, slender build, with blue eyes and brown hair. Editor & Publisher, February 10, 1917, noted Hall's relocation: "Two Chicago newspaper artists are planning to enter the New York field. One is Quin Hall, creator of 'Punkin' Head Pete,' (sic) who has already left Chicago. The other is Herbert Stoops, of the Chicago Tribune staff." The March 1917 Photoplay Magazine published his drawings.

Hall's address was the same in the 1920 census. He was a newspaper cartoonist. He has not been found in the 1930 census. The Gazette, December 28, 1939, announced Hall's new comic panel.

New Cartoonist Draws for Gazette

This is the story of typical American cartoonist, ad how he got that way. You will be interested because it is the story behind "The Doolittles," the new comic panel depicting a typical American cartoon family. "The Doolittles" starts monday in The Gazette.

Quin Hal, creator of the Doolittles, is a tall, smiling well groomed individual. There is nothing Bohemish about him. He might be a successful businessman. He and Mrs. Hall live in Manasquan, on the New Jersey coast, where they are convenient to New York and still satisfy their liking for small-town life....

The Miami News obituary, October 3, 1968, said, "…Moving to Miami in 1939 in semi-retirement, he applied for a job at The Herald in 1941 and was hired." His panel, Strictly Private, began in 1940. The News said, "…His first wife…died in 1954, and three years later he married Mrs. Marjorie Gough, who lost her husband in World War II. Mrs. Gough had been a close friend of the Halls for several years."

Hall passed away October 1, 1968, in Florida. The News said, "...Mr. Hall, who was 84 and lived at 1595 Bay Rd., Miami Beach, died Tuesday night at a hospital after an illness of several weeks….Mr. Hall is survived by his wife, Marjorie. He was born in Lacon, Ill., and his ashes will be buried there."