R.I.P. Doug Marlette

[Sonic Youth]

Doug Marlette, World editorial cartoonist, dies in Mississippi accident
Tulsa World
7/10/2007 3:34 PM

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MEMPHIS, Tenn -- Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Doug Marlette was killed Tuesday morning in a car crash.

Marlette, 57, joined the Tulsa World staff as its editorial cartoonist Feb. 12, 2006. He is survived by his wife, Melinda, and an adult son, Jackson.

The North Carolina native was riding in a car on a state highway near Byhalia, Miss. just before 10 a.m. Tuesday when the accident occurred. Byhalia is about 30 miles south of Memphis in northwest Mississippi.

Mississippi Highway Patrol Staff Sgt. Tommy Coleman said the accident occurred on a four-lane highway. Coleman said Marlette was a passenger in a truck travelling east on U.S. 78. The 2002 Toyota Tacoma ''hit a water spot and hydroplaned, struck a roadside sign and hit a tree,'' Coleman said.

Marlette was killed and the driver, 33-year-old John Davenport, of Oxford, Miss., was taken to a nearby hospital. His condition was not available.

Coleman said both men were wearing seat belts.

Robert E. Lorton III, publisher and president of the Tulsa World, said: ''This is a great tragedy, not only for the Tulsa World family, but for all who knew Doug. He was more than a great cartoonist and author, he was a tremendous human being. Words cannot express the grief that we are all feeling today. Our hearts go out to Melinda and all of Doug's family.''

Marlette had been in Charlotte, N.C., for the funeral of his father, Elmer Monroe Marlette. Services were held Friday. He was on his way to see friends in Oxford, Miss., at the time of the accident.

Marlette's editorial cartoons and comic strip ''Kudzu'' are syndicated in hundreds of newspapers worldwide. His work has appeared in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Marlette has been drawing professionally full-time since 1972, and he wrote an award-winning novel recently purchased by Paramount Pictures for film adaptation. The novel, ''The Bridge,'' was published in 2001 and voted Best Book of the Year for Fiction by the Southeast Booksellers Association in 2002.

Marlette was born in Greensboro, N.C. He graduated from Florida State University and began drawing political cartoons for The Charlotte Observer in 1972. In 1987, he was hired by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for his work at the two papers.

Marlette was hired by New York Newsday in 1989 and in 2002, Marlette went to work for the Tallahassee Democrat.