Hokinson, Helen

Helen Hokinson, (born June 29, 1893, Mendota, Ill., U.S.—died Nov. 1, 1949, Washington, D.C.), American cartoonist best known for her gently satirical drawings of plump, slightly bewildered suburban matrons and clubwomen. Her “girls” were unworldly and naïve, concerned with diets, hats, propriety, and the diligent pursuit of culture and self-improvement.

Hokinson attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and began a career as a fashion illustrator and designer. In 1920 she moved to New York City. After drawing her first cartoons for the New York Daily Mirror, Hokinson joined The New Yorker magazine in 1925, where she was a cartoonist until her death in an airplane crash in 1949. James Reid Parker, a colleague at The New Yorker, was her long-time silent partner in creating the cartoons that made her famous, and he edited posthumous collections of them.