Kate Osann facts for kids

Kate Osann was a talented American cartoonist. She is best known for creating the popular comic strip called Tizzy.

About Kate Osann

Kate Osann was born in St. Louis, Missouri. She grew up in New York City, which is a very big and exciting place! She went to college at Hunter College, where she studied and learned many things. After college, she became a cartoonist, drawing funny pictures and stories for people to enjoy.

Her Cartoon Career

Starting Out

Early in her career, Kate Osann worked on drawing pictures for advertisements. She also illustrated stories for popular magazines like Collier's Weekly and Saturday Evening Post. These were big magazines that many people read every week.

The Tizzy Comic Strip

Kate Osann was a regular artist for Collier's Weekly. This is where her famous cartoon, Tizzy, first appeared. Tizzy was a panel-style cartoon, which means it was usually a single drawing with a funny caption or dialogue.

After Collier's Weekly magazine stopped publishing in 1957, the Tizzy cartoons continued! They were then published by the Newspaper Enterprise Association, which sent them out to many different newspapers across the country. Tizzy cartoons ran in newspapers until 1970.

Who is Tizzy?

Tizzy, the main character of the comic strip, was a typical American teenage girl. She was drawn to be funny and relatable to young readers.

When Tizzy cartoons were in Collier's, they were printed in color, and Tizzy had red hair. But when the cartoons were sent to newspapers, they were printed in black and white, and Tizzy's hair was shown as blonde. If the color cartoons were later printed in black and white books, Tizzy's red hair looked black.

Tizzy also wore special horn-rimmed glasses that had triangular lenses. In the Collier's cartoons, you could clearly see the sides of her glasses. But in the newspaper cartoons, you usually couldn't see the sides, making it look like her glasses were just resting on her nose!

Tizzy Books

During the late 1950s and 1960s, three paperback books featuring Tizzy cartoons were published. These books let fans enjoy many Tizzy comics all in one place. The books were:

• Tizzy: That Loveable, Laughable Teen-Ager (published in 1958)
• More Tizzy (also published in 1958)
• Tizzy (published in 1967)

Kate Osann's Tizzy cartoons also appeared in another book called Baby-Sitter's Guide, which was written by Sharon Sherman in 1969.

Later Works and Another Name

In the 1970s, some books were published where Kate Osann's name was spelled a little differently: "Kate O'Sann."

One of these books was called Men!, published in 1974. Kate O'Sann drew the pictures for this book. On the back of the book's cover, there was a small drawing of Kate O'Sann herself and a short story about her life. It mentioned that she was from Missouri but grew up in New York City and went to Hunter College. It also said she lived in Orlando, Florida, with her husband, William O. Chessman, and their two children, William and Kathy.

Kate O'Sann also wrote and illustrated two other books in 1979: Kid's Cookery and Things Girls Like to Draw. These books were published in Longwood, Florida.

It's interesting that her name was spelled "O'sann" with a small "s" in the book Men!, but with a big "S" ("O'Sann") in Kid's Cookery and Things Girls Like to Draw.