Jon Kennedy Springfield MO Newspapers staff portrait 1941

I came across this gem of an illustration on Heritage and was immediately drawn to the characters depicted on the page.

Jon Kennedy was a political cartoonist, one of the first in the state of Arkansas, drawing cartoons at the Arkansas Democrat for nearly 50 years. Before that, he had a short stint as a news artist for the Springfield Leader in Missouri. This illustration depicts the staff of that newsroom in 1941.

I have no idea why the illustration was created. Perhaps it was tied to Kennedy's departure for his new position? But I have been working with people familiar with the newsroom to attempt to identify some of the cast of characters.

* The editor in the center (with the paper and shears) is George Olds, the managing editor of the (morning and evening) papers at the time.
* The tall man to his right is Walter H. Brunkhorst, the editor of the Springfield Daily News, the morning edition.
* The guy with the receding hairline and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, standing at Brunkhorst's elbow, is Jim Billings. He was a copy editor, Sunday editor, chief editorial writer and fine arts reviewer for many years, starting in 1927 and retiring in the early 1970s.
* The dapper fellow with the slicked-back hair walking briskly across the bottom of the scene. Stories indicate that he was a flamboyant police reporter in the 1930s and early '40s.
* The dark-haired woman striding purposely toward the rotund fellow in the lower lefthand corner of the painting is Ann Fair Dodson, longtime city government reporter. This painting hung in Ann's house for many years.

What is amazing to me is how easy it is to spot these same characters in a modern newsroom. I work side by side (well, virtually) with people who would not look out of place in this painting.

That's one of the many charms of a newsroom.