This article was published Sept. 29, 1999
Editorial cartoonist Clifford “Baldy” Baldowski drew more than 15,000 cartoons during a career that spanned 33 years at The Atlanta Constitution.
Presidents asked for the originals of his cartoons, as did the Library of Congress for its archives.
Mr. Baldowski, 81, of East Point died of suspected heart problems Monday at South Fulton Hospital. The funeral will be 2 p.m. Thursday at Emmanuel Lutheran Church. Howard L. Carmichael & Sons is in charge of arrangements.
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
Mr. Baldowski, known by his pen name “Baldy,” retired from the Constitution in 1982. His cartoons appeared in Time, Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report; in newspapers across the United States and Canada; and in English-language newspapers in Rome and Paris.
In 1959, a Time magazine cover story called Mr. Baldowski “one of the South’s leading appeals to reason.”
He was awarded four Freedom Foundation George Washington Medals for cartoons heralding constitutional freedoms and patriotism. A collection of his political cartoons has been given to the Richard B. Russell Library at the University of Georgia.
The late Constitution columnist Celestine Sibley once called his work “sharp and mean and funny cartoons.”
Credit: undated FILE photo
Credit: undated FILE photo
A decorated veteran, Mr. Baldowski was a navigator-observer and intelligence officer in the Army Air Corps during World War II, when he was awarded a Bronze Star. He retired from the Air Force Reserve as a colonel.
He often told the story of a war experience on the island of Ie Island off Okinawa in April 1945. A group of war correspondents, including Ernie Pyle, had come to observe the troops. Mr. Pyle asked to ride in the forward jeep and took Mr. Baldowski’s seat. Mr. Baldowski got an autograph from the famous war correspondent, then got into a second jeep. That autograph was likely the last thing Mr. Pyle wrote, for a few minutes later, the convoy was fired on, and Mr. Pyle was killed.
After the war, Mr. Baldowski returned to his hometown of Augusta to work for the Augusta Chronicle as an editorial cartoonist in 1946, then worked for the Miami Herald before joining the staff of the Constitution in 1950.
In a 1983 column, Ms. Sibley wrote that John F. Kennedy was delighted with a Baldy caricature of JFK dressed as a Boy Scout, carrying an old lady labeled “The Economy” across the street while she shouted, “But dammit, I don’t want to cross the street.” The president asked for the original and Mr. Baldowski sent it to him.
President Johnson asked for the original of a cartoon showing Georgians with their hands behind them, instead of outstretched in welcome, when he campaigned in Georgia.
And Mr. Baldowski’s cartoon on the Camp David peace meeting prompted a letter from President Carter.
Credit: Unknown
Credit: Unknown
Survivors include his wife, Sylvia Christiansen Baldowski; three sons, Clifford H. Baldowski Jr. and Kenneth R. Baldowski, both of East Point, and William J. Baldowski of Morrow; a daughter, Elizabeth Lynn Walker of Morrow; and four grandchildren.
READ MORE ABOUT BALDY
His cartoons and papers at the University of Georgia library
Clifford “Baldy” Baldowski (1917-1999) - New Georgia Encyclopedia
