Cartoonist and community activist Marian Del Vecchio has passed away.
Marian Del Vecchio
February 24, 1935 – June 15, 2019
Her memoir, “Hunger,” traces her family’s 1938 escape from Hitler, the excitement of New York, and the Freudian labyrinth of the 1960s. In 1964 Marian married former fighter pilot, now attorney, Frank Del Vecchio. His work plunged them into Boston politics and the civil rights movement in Washington, D.C. Since the late 1990s, Marian’s cartooning skewered the political clashes between South Beach development and historic preservation. Her infectious laugh and humor are her irreplaceable trademarks.
From the Miami Herald tribute:
Marian Del Vecchio’s cartoons were also regularly featured under the section “A Different View” for the Miami Herald from 2000 to 2005 . Her drawings were also featured at a recent exhibit by the Miami Design Preservation League at the Art Deco Museum. Frank Del Vecchio kept spreading his wife’s cartoons by sending them to hundreds of subscribers of his regular community newsletter.
Being a contributor to the Miami Herald didn’t discourage Marian
from taking the paper to task when she saw the need:
Del Vecchio spent more than 20 years living and documenting the changing character of South Beach through her sharply satirical drawings, shedding light through humor on local government corruption, zoning laws and the needs of the city’s homeless population.
“She had this quality of no ego, no self-promotion and she was loved. … She despised intentional cruelty; she valued kindness.”