Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Frank Walter

Harold Frank “Jerry” Walter was born on November 25, 1915, in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, according to his Social Security application which was transcribed at Ancestry.com. The same birth information was reported in the Post-Star, November 9, 2007. However, the Social Security Death Index has Walter’s birth month as October which may have been a clerical or typographical error.

Walter has not been found in the 1920 U.S. Federal Census. A search at Ancestry.com has links to travel records in Brazil for Walter and his parents who may have been out of the country during the census enumeration.

The 1930 census recorded Walter and his parents, Pliney and Clara, in Westfield, New Jersey at 307 Hazel Avenue. His father was a planning engineer of telephone equipment.

The Post-Star said Walter “graduated from Colgate University in 1937, where he was a member of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity. He also studied at the New School and at the Art Students League in New York City.”

According to the 1940 census, Walter was an advertising writer. He lived with his parents in Westfield, New Jersey at 731 Coleman Place. The Post-Star said Walter was “a copywriter at J. Walter Thompson, at McCann-Erickson and at BBDO.”

The New York, New York, Marriage License Indexes, at Ancestry.com, includes a “Harold F. Walter” who married “Ethelynde Stimpson” on October 2, 1940 in New York City.

The Evening News (North Tonawanda, New York), July 3, 1953, said “…Married shortly before Pearl Harbor, the Walters worked for an advertising agency before Mr. Walters [sic] became a navigator for the Atlantic Transport Command….”

The Post-Star said Walter “served for three years in World War II, as a 1st lieutenant, where he was a navigator in the Army Air Transport Command, stationed in Washington, D.C.”

American Newspaper Comics (2012) said Walter and his wife produced Susie Q. Smith, which started as a panel in 1945 with the King Features Syndicate. The McNaught Syndicate continued the series as a strip on February 9, 1953. It ended November 28, 1959. The series was bylined “Jerry and Linda Walter”. The couple created Jellybean Jones for King Features which syndicated it from March 4, 1946 to 1949. The panel was credited to “Frank Walter”. For Newsday Specials, the Walters did The Lively Ones which debuted May 17, 1965 and ran into 1966.

Evening News 7/3/1953; Jerry and Linda working on Susie Q. Smith

In 1950 Walter illustrated an educational workbook.

The Post-Star said Walter wrote gags for stand-up comedians, and exhibited his abstract paintings at the Chase Gallery in New York City. Walter’s memberships include the “Cartoonist Society, Glens Falls Country Club, Hyde Collection, the Lake George Art Project, Southern Vermont Art Association in Manchester, Vt., the Society of Chambers in Woodstock, N.Y., Woodstock Art Museum and Woodstock Golf Club.”

At some point Walter and Linda divorced. Walter remarried to Clarice O’Hara.

Walter passed away November 7, 2007, in Glens Falls, New York. Walter was laid to rest at Pine View Cemetery. 

Further Reading
Post-Star, May 9, 2011
Cartoonist who left millions to charity moved to Queensbury from Woodstock

Daily Gazette, July 29, 2011
Queensbury cartoonist’s paintings to be auctioned


—Alex Jay