Eugene Payne cartoons

Eugene Gray Payne was born on January 29, 1919. He was the only son of Eugene Payne and Sarah Brockenbrough Payne. His father died in 1923 at the age of thirty-eight, when he was just four years old. Payne's oral history interview on Goldmine contains many details of his early life. Eugene matriculated through Fishburne Military School, in Waynesboro, Virginia, graduating on June 7, 1938. While there, he was on the honor roll, had an impressive record of achievement, and exhibited skill in leadership. From Fishburne, he went on to Syracuse University, in New York, where he secured a scholarship. There, he studied illustrating.

During World War II, he served with the crew of a B-24 weather scouter. After the war, he worked as a freelance artist, and also drove a milk wagon. He went to work for the Charlotte Observer starting in 1958. A year later, he moved to Birmingham, to work for the Birmingham News, but returned to Charlotte a year later. He won the 1967 Sigma Delta Chi award for cartooning, and soon thereafter won the Pulitzer prize for cartooning in 1968. In 1971, he left the Observer to work for WSOC-TV, but returned again to the Observer in 1978. Over the course of his career, Payne traveled to the White House on more than one occasion to meet with Presidents Nixon and Ford. He also received several notes and letters from these and other political figures, complimenting him on his artistic work in portraying them in the media.

With his wife, June, his family consisted of four children and three step children. Aside from his work in the newsroom, Payne enjoyed golfing. This collection represents exclusively Payne's years at The Charlotte Observer, with the majority from the period 1967-71. Most of the cartoons are original copies sketched with India ink on heavy bond poster board. The Pulitzer Prize series is represented by dry mounted reprints.