Cartoonist Charles Fredrick has passed away.
Charles Wright Fredrick
November 3, 1942 – October 4, 2024
Charles attended Springfield, Missouri schools, graduating from Parkview in 1960, before heading to Texas to attend Baylor University and graduating in 1964. The beginning of his adult work life took him for brief stints in federal health service in California, Minnesota and Tennessee before landing in Texas for many years. In Texas, he worked for Dallas Health Department, grant writing for the Mesquite and Carrollton Police Departments, Dallas Baptist University and a 16 year career with the City of Arlington in various departments leading to his role as Water Office Manager until his retirement. Retirement drew him and Gerry, his loving wife of 49 years, to Eureka Springs, Arkansas where they lived for the next 23 years. During that time, he opened the Four Corners Frame shop where he framed others’ treasures and memories for display. The Golden Years brought Charles full circle back to the Springfield suburb of Ozark, Missouri.
Another lifelong passion, however, was his art. Charles’ artwork spanned pen and ink art, children’s murals, playful thumbprint art and cartoons that often had a political or socially conscious tone. Gerry and the kids found themselves on weekend adventures to art shows with Charles to sell his art and lifelong friendships were made on these weekend trips. Charles was fortunate as a child to live next to a nationally syndicated cartoonist, Bob Palmer, who helped mold and ignite his love of art. Charles’ cartoons were published in the Baylor Lariat, the Oak Cliff Tribune and the Ozark Mountaineer.
Details of Charles’ cartooning career from the Springfield-Green County Library District:
Charles Fredrick started his cartooning career at Parkview High School, where he drew cartoons for the high school’s newspaper. Fredrick grew up sharing a fence with the Springfield New-Leader’s cartoonist, Bob Palmer. Under Palmer’s tutelage, Fredrick began to grow as an artist and cartoonist.
He attended Baylor University where he drew sports cartoons for the Baylor University Lariat. Fredrick spent much of his cartooning career with the Oak Cliff Tribune, a newspaper near Dallas, Texas. In his later life, Fredrick returned to the Ozarks.
The Ozarks Mountaineer [magazine] published a series of sketches Fredrick created to illustrate letters written by his grandfather, Charles Henry Fredrick, who was born in 1879. The letters offer valuable insight into life in the Ozarks at the turn of the 20th century, and Fredrick’s cartoons helped bring those stories to life.
The aforementioned Springfield-Greene County Library has a collection of Charles Fredrick drawings.
