Tuesday, July 25, 2017
Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Edith Stevens
Edith W. Stevens was born in Massachusetts on October 4, 1899 according to the Social Security Death Index. Her middle initial was recorded in the censuses and city directories.
The 1900 U.S. Federal Census recorded Stevens and her parents, Beaumont, a foreman, and Margaret, a Canadian emigrant. The family resided in Fitchburg, Massachusetts at 233 Rollstone Street.
According to the 1910 census, Stevens’s mother remarried to Oliver D. Sherwood a U.S. mail carrier. The family of four, which included Stevens’s brother, Roswell, lived in Boston at 31 Batavia Street.
The Boston Traveler, December 6, 1951, published an article about the hundredth anniversary of the Boston Girls High School and mentioned Stevens as one of its alumni.
In the 1920 census, Stevens and her widow mother were Boston residents at 9 Albemarle Street. Stevens was employed as a filing clerk at an insurance office.
Information about Stevens’s art training has not been found.
American Newspaper Comics (2012) said Stevens drew Us Girls for the Boston Post. The series debuted March 4, 1929 and ran into the 1960s.
The 1930 census said newspaper cartoonist Stevens, her mother and a boarder, Sherman Davison, lived in Arlington, Massachusetts at 216 Broadway.
A 1934 Boston directory listed Stevens’s office at “259 Wash”. In the 1935 Arlington city directory, Stevens’s address was 22 Churchill Avenue. The 1939 Boston directory had the same address for the Boston Post artist.
Stevens’s residence was unchanged in the 1940 census which said the household included Stevens, her foster brother Sherman Davison and a maid.
Stevens passed away in January 1983 in Massachusetts.
—Alex Jay
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
