Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Odin Burvik

(An earlier profile was posted in 2015.)

Odin Burvik was the pseudonym of Mabel Glazier “Grace” Burwick, who was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado on September 17, 1904. Her full name was pieced together from census records and a family tree; the birth information was from her Social Security application (transcribed at Ancestry.com). Burvik’s parents were Odin Burwick and Della Marie Glazier. In A Century of Women Cartoonists (1993), Trina Robbins wrote “Another woman who took a masculine name was Mabel Burwick; at the start of her career, she changed her name to Odin Burvik.”

The 1905 Colorado Springs directory had a listing for her parents, Odin and Della, who resided at 128 West Mill. He was a driver at the Houston Lumber Company. The 1907 directory recorded them at 418 South Tejon and he remained employed at Houston Lumber. Iowa Gravestone has a photo of Odin’s gravestone, with the dates “1879–1908”, at the Holman Sergeant Bluff Cemetery in Woodbury County, Iowa.

In the 1910 United States Census, Burwick and her mother, a widow and dressmaker, lived in Colorado Springs at 914 Lake Avenue. Later, her mother remarried.

The 1920 census recorded Burwick and her mother and brother, Robert, who both had the Olesen surname, in Los Angeles, California at 6110 Moneta Avenue. She worked as a saleslady in her mother’s candy store. The whereabouts of her Danish step-father is not known. 

Burvik graduated from Santa Maria Union High School. The Los Angeles Times (California), June 13, 1925, said “the salutatory was delivered by Miss Mabel Burwick, a student who has carried away high honors in the art class as well as other studies.” 

The Federal Illustrator, Summer 1926, mentioned Burvik.

Believes in Fairies

Charlie Plumb believes in fairies, but he hasn’t a corner on this believing business because Mabel Burwick does too. “Do you believe in fairies?” She asks, “I do. I envy no one, not even Cinderella or Aladdin.

“Actually I am the happiest person I have ever known and it was through drawing that such friends came to me!

“You and your school deserve everlasting thanks for. Helping me discover the golden Aladdin’s lamp which needed but a little elbow grease and rubbing to bring me friends and happiness.”

Miss Burwick has gone ahead so rapidly that it is almost possible to believe that she did have a fairy godmother watching over her. She was art editor of the Breeze, a school weekly which won first place over fifty others at Stanford University. She has illustrated a text book on design and has done excellent work in the greeting card field.

She is now traveling in Europe with a friend made by her art ability. Doesn’t that almost take your breath away?

The 1926 Colorado Springs city directory listed Burvik, a student, and her mother at 304 East Monument. She studied at Colorado College. 

1927 Pikes Peak Nugget yearbook

In 1930 the Burwick family was in Minneapolis, Minnesota at 916 Seventh Avenue. The census had Burvik’s first name as Grace. She was a self-employed commercial artist and her mother was a school teacher. 

In June 1933, Burvik was aboard the steamship Paris when it departed from New York City. She arrived in Plymouth, England on June 16, 1933. Burvik returned on the steamship Ile de France which departed from Le Havre, France on September 13, 1933. According to the passenger list, she arrived in New York on the 19th; her destination address was the L.S. Donaldson Company in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

Burvik’s name appeared, as Miss Mabel Burwick, in an issue of the Bulletin, Volumes 23-24, 1934, from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts. She was in the Federal Illustrator, Spring Number, 1938. The Kingston Daily Freeman (New York), April 13, 1968, said she “…decided at the age of 12 to become a professional artist…Mrs. Waugh studied at Minneapolis and Chicago Art Institutes, and with Harvey Dunn at Grand Central Galleries in New York…”

The Catalog of Copyright Entries, Part 1, Group 2, Pamphlets, Etc. 1940 New Series, Volume 37, Number 2 has an entry for her and John Charles Fabbrini. 

New York City was the home of the Burwicks in the 1940 census. They lived at 51 West 68th Street. Burvik was a freelance artist, who had two years of college; her brother was a hotel porter. The census said the Burwicks, in 1935, resided in Chicago, Illinois. 

American Newspaper Comics (2012) said Dickie Dare, created by Milton Caniff, started on July 31, 1933 and ran to October 12, 1957. Coulton Waugh produced the strip from December 3, 1934 to March 26, 1944. His then assistant, Odin Burvik, drew the Sunday from April 2, 1944 to 1948, and daily from May 22, 1944 to March 6, 1948. She was followed by Fran Matera from March 8, 1948 to November 5, 1949. Waugh returned to the Associated Press series on November 7, 1949. 

In Waugh’s book, The Comics (1947), he explained how Burvik became involved with the strip.

…When the writer decided to turn finally to other matters, he had as assistant a determined young woman with an interesting Norwegian name, Odin Burvik. She could herring-bone up a hill on skiis as fast as he could roll down them, and she had one burning, devastatingly difficult ambition: to become a comic artist.

Knowing the stress and strain of strip-producing, the author decided to try her determination and gave her the most difficult assignments he could. “You can’t be sick; no holidays,” he said. She wonders now how she ever survived; but she learned so much in a single year as assistant, that when the big chance came in the spring of 1944, the Associated Press agreed to try her out. She won, and soon she was in full charge of “Dickie,” matching his bubbling energy with with the sense of life which gives her style its own special distinction.

Arts Magazine, Volume 20, Issue 6, 1946, said “…Coulton Waugh, son of the late Frederick Waugh of seascape fame, has long been the creator of a popular cartoon strip titled ‘Dicky [sic] Dare’…Not long back he decided that he wanted to give it up, and in due course, an open competition was held by the Associated Press to find someone to carry it on. One Miss Odin Burvik won. Miss Burvik was a former assistant of Coulton...Well…it’s still in the family…he married the girl!…” 

According to Who Was Who in America with World Notables (1976), Waugh married Elizabeth Dey Jenkinson on May 18, 1919; she passed away in 1944. He married Burwick on January 17, 1945. The Connecticut Marriage Record, at Ancestry.com, said they married in Stamford.

The Newburgh News (New York), September 6, 1945, reported the marriage of Burwick’s brother, who “…at present is assistant to his sister, Mrs. Coulton Waugh, of Little Britain who draws a comic strip for Associated Press…” In Alter Ego #59, June 2006, Fran Matera explained how he took over the strip and who did the lettering.

…the Associated Press hired me to take over Dickie Dare. I went to see Coulton Waugh and his wife, Odin. Waugh was writing and doing a lot of the art, and his wife worked on it for a while, signing it ‘Odin.’ Her brother lettered. Gradually, both Coulton and Odin wanted to taper off…doing the strip so they could paint, and I took over. Odin’s brother continued to letter it, but he didn’t live near me, so I decided to take that over….

The 1950 census counted Burvik, her husband, daughter, Phyllis, and son, John, in New Windsor, New York on Jackson Avenue two miles right. Also living with them was the mother-in-law of Waugh’s first wife and two hired hands. 

Burwick devoted her time to painting. Parade magazine, January 12, 1958, had an advertisement for Art Instruction, Inc., which had a paragraph about her (below).

The Kingston Daily Freeman said, “…She gained her total knowledge of color and oil painting from working with her husband and the two often work together on a portrait. The almost life-size portrait of their daughter, Phyllis, is one example of this collaboration…” 

The Newburgh News, March 18, 1958, noted the upcoming lecture at Temple Beth Jacob Brotherhood: “…The program will feature a lecture discussion on ‘The History of Cartooning’ by Coulton and Odin Waugh, nationally-syndicated cartoonists and creators of ‘Dickie Dare’….” 

During the mid-1960s and 1970s, the couple produced the panel Junior Editors Quiz.

Citizen Advertiser (Auburn NY) 11/18/1969

Word balloons say: “Some may enjoy abstraction but

for me the things in nature are just—so beautiful or 

funny—that I can’t resist drawing them just as they are—”.

The Evening News (Newburgh, New York), June 11, 1964, published photos of Phyllis and her mother, and the November 6, 1983 edition has another photo. The Otsego Farmer (Cooperstown, New York), July 17, 1969, reported the upcoming exhibition at the Pioneer Gallery, whose members included the Waughs and their daughter.

Waugh passed away May 23, 1973, according to The New York Times. He was survived by his wife, Odin, son, John, daughter, Phyllis Goodman, and sister, Gwenyth Clymer. 

The Cornwall Local (New York), September 30, 1981, reported Burvik’s marriage.

Odin Waugh is wed to Hubert Buchanan

Odin Waugh of Jackson Avenue, New Windsor, and Hubert Buchanan of Pueblo, Colorado, were married September 13 at the the Bethlehem Presbyterian Church in New Windsor.

Over 100 friends and relatives attended the ceremony. The couple was received at a social hour after the ceremony in the Church hall.

After a trip to Torremolinos, Spain, the couple will reside at 209 West 19th St., in Pueblo, Colo.

Mrs. Waugh-Buchanan is a well-known local artist. Buchanan is retired from the New York Life Insurance Co. and also is an artist. He is president of the Pueblo Art Center in Colo.

The same wedding date was in Who’s Who in U. S. Writers, Editors and Poets, United States & Canada 1992–1993 which profiled Buchanan.

Burvik, as Odin Waugh, passed away in June 1998 according to the Social Security Death Index. The USGenWeb Project website, Welcome to the Orange County, New York GenWeb Site, has the Times Herald-Record Obituary Index June 1998. The entry has an error: “Burwick Glazier, Odin [Waugh, Buchanan] / Born 09/17/1904 / Birth Place Colorado Springs, NY / Died 06/17/1998”. She was born in Colorado state. 

Her mother passed away December 3, 1964, and brother on December 15, 2006. In The Comics, Waugh said

…The author would like especially to thank his research assistant, Robert Burwick, whose wide knowledge of the subject and sharp intelligence proved invaluable during the several years of hard work which went into the book….