Obscurity of the Day: Say, Genevieve

In addition to possibly creating the wonderful Militant Mary, Elizabeth Kirkman Fitzhugh did a little work at the New York Tribune in the mid 1910s. Most of that work was done for the Sunday children's page, and included two series. The first, Say, Genevieve, concerns a pair of little girls who dream big before having second thoughts. This delightful strip, with poetry that actually bounces along quite stylishly (a rarity among newspaper strips in verse), ran on the page from April 26 1914 to April 4 1915. It didn't run every week, though; Fitzhugh's regular spot at the top of the page offered non-series strips about half the time.

Early strips were signed with her maiden name, Elizabeth Kirkman. Alex Jay has determined that she married Valentine Fitzhugh in January 1914, so either she was producing these strips well in advance, or took awhile to decide if she was going to sign with her married name.


Say, Genevieve was dropped in favor of a new series concocted by Fitzhugh, The Antic Family's Alphabet, but that series was cut off in mid-alphabet when she left the Tribune.