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- Lou Rogers was a cartoonist, artist, writer, storyteller, publicspeaker, radio host, and political activist.
She was born in a small lumbering town in what was then the frontierof Maine, the fourth of seven children born to Col. Luther Bailey"L.B." Rogers and Mary Elizabeth Barker Rogers. She grew up on a farm,with summers at the family's isolated camp at nearby Shin Pond. As achild she loved to draw, producing sketches and caricatures, includingones of her teachers.
Annie taught for a year at the Patten Academy before leaving to pursuea career in art at the Massachusetts Normal Art School. She studiedfor one year and, following a brief interlude, moved to New York City,hoping to become a cartoonist. Discovering barriers to being a womancartoonist, she began submitting her work as "Lou Rogers." By 1908 hercartoons were published in Judge magazine.
Moving to Greenwich Village, she joined the woman suffrage movementand was soon promoting it through her cartoons. Her work beganappearing in the New York Call, Judge, and the Woman's Journal, apropaganda newspaper for the National American Woman SuffrageAssociation. Rogers entertained street crowds in Times Square and citylocations dressed in her artist's smock, drawing oversized cartoons inthe tradition of chalk talks as she spoke about suffrage. She wasfeatured in 1913 in Cartoons Magazine in an article titled "A WomanDestined."
In the 1920s Lou Rogers produced a series of children's stories inrhyme about imaginary little people called "Gimmicks" for the LadiesHome Journal. Lou then wrote and illustrated two children's books, TheRise of the Red Alders in 1928, and Ska-Denge (Beaver for Revenge) in1929. In the early 1930s she offered a radio show over NBC, "AnimalNews Club."
By 1935 Lou Rogers had married artist Howard Smith, and together theypurchased an old farm outside Brookfield, CT. It provided a quietgetaway, studio space and an opportunity for renovation. For manytears Lou's nieces and nephews recalled their delightful visits there,enjoying time with their fun-loving aunt.
In the early 1950s, Lou was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and shedied at the age of 73 at the home of a sister.
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1879 - 1952 (72 years)
