Medical center salutes Beetle Bailey
Mort Walker’s final drawing on display at Stamford Hospital
STAMFORD — Mort Walker’s last illustrations of his famed creation Beetle Bailey were drawn inside Stamford Hospital as a thank you to staff, days before the prolific illustrator died in his Stamford home in early 2018.
On Friday, those drawings were presented to Walker’s family at a brief ceremony at the hospital, which unveiled a framed replica of one of the illustrations that will adorn the wall outside the rehabilitation center where Walker spent some of his final days.
Brian Walker, one of Mort’s sons, estimated that his father created roughly 25,000 Beetle Bailey comic strips during his lifetime.
“We’re sure he’s smiling down on us now, sort of laughing, as he always did,” Brian said. “Fortunately cartoon characters never age, so they’ll never end up here.”
Bill Janocha, who was Mort Walker’s assistant for more than 30 years and is currently working on a book about Walker’s life, said the Stamford resident’s final drawings are a piece of history.
“Mort was such a creative person and drew probably millions of drawings during his lifetime,” Janocha said. “These drawings here are actually the final ones that he ever drew. It is very important that you’re recognizing his creativity that he had until the end of his life.”
One of the drawings depicts the titular character of Mort’s most famous comic strip with the words, “Three cheers to the nurses who made my hospital stay such a great experience!”
Other pages include drawings of Sargeant Snorkel, his dog, Otto, and another image of Bailey. One image depicts a screaming Snorkel with exclamation points and other marks beside his head.
Michelle Pomar was Walker’s primary occupational therapist during his stay at the rehabilitation center. The cartoonist injured himself in a fall in mid-December of 2017, right after finishing a week of Beetle Bailey strips. He needed partial hip replacement surgery because of the fall, according to his son Greg Walker.
While at the hospital, Mort got the flu, Greg said, and had to be transferred to the intensive care unit. He spent the final three nights of his life in his Stamford home.
Pomar remembered Walker fondly.
“He obviously wanted to just draw, so that was a good way to get him up and moving and standing,” she said.
Another frame that will go up outside the rehab center includes a photo of Mort drawing while in the hospital, above a cartoon by Janocha of Walker arriving at the Pearly Gates, a tribute he created after Waler’s death.
The “Beetle Bailey” comic strip has been in production since 1950 and chronicles the antics of a U.S. Army private at the fictional Camp Swampy. Walker published eight other strips during his career, including “Hi and Lois,” which is still produced by his sons Brian, Greg, and Neal Walker, and was initially based on the family’s previous life in Greenwich.
Brian and Greg also still produce “Beetle Bailey,” including strips created by Mort before he died.
“Beetle marches on,” Greg said.
Mort Walker also created and launched the Museum of Cartoon Art, which opened in Greenwich in 1974. It move to Rye Brook, N.Y. In 1992, and later Boca Raton, Fla., before much of the collection was sent to a museum at Ohio State University.
Margie Walker Hauer, one of Mort’s daughters, was at the Friday presentation.
She said her father never retired.
“Right up until he arrived here he was doing his work,” she said.
Hauer said Mort’s greatest vice was chocolate cake and the legendary cartoonist passed away on the same date as the unofficial holiday National Chocolate Cake Day.
Brian said his father can finally have his fill of his greatest food craving.
“He’s got all the pens and chocolate cake he needs,” Brian said.