Clarence Allen
Artist/Writer, Durant and Tulsa
2006 Inductee Oklahoma Cartoonists Hall of Fame
Clarence Allen was an editorial cartoonist and philanthropist. Allen was born in Georgia, but when he was three, his parents moved to Durant, Oklahoma. Allen attended Southeastern State College in Oklahoma and, after military service in World War I, the Art Students League in New York. After several jobs in art in New York City, including working on the Mutt and Jeff animated cartoons, he moved to San Antonio and then to Tulsa in 1929, where his brother was promotion manager for the Tulsa World. Upon arrival, he was hired by the Tulsa World to help found the art department and later served as art director and artist for both the World and Tribune.
Allen was instrumental in promotions that helped acquire the Philbrook and Gilcrease museums in Tulsa, the Studio Club, Spotlight Club, Jaycees national headquarters and the 21st Street Bridge over the Arkansas River in Tulsa. His sketches figured in the planning of the Tulsa Civic Center and River Parks.
He won six national awards as a cartoonist including the Freedoms Foundation Honor Medal for community service. He died in Tulsa in 1989 at the age of 91. He was the last founding charter member of the National Cartoonist Society.