Sharon Katherine Smith Koester Kane has died. Known for her wonderfully made drawings of babies, toddlers, young children, and teenagers, she began her career as a published artist, illustrator, and cartoonist while she was herself still a child. Her picture-making went on for the next eighty years, ending only last month with her death.
Sharon Katherine Smith was born on February 18, 1932, in South Bend, Indiana, to Stuyvesant C. Smith, an engineer at Bendix Aviation, and Katherine Eunice (Young) Smith, also an artist and writer. "Ever since I can remember I have been drawing," Sharon Smith wrote in 1950, "mostly pictures of children." She had her first published drawing in Children's Activities Magazine (now Highlights For Children) when she was nine years old. Later she had her work published in Scholastic and Seventeen and became a regular contributor to Child Life and The Christian Science Monitor. But it was for her children's books that she is remembered so well today.
As a student at Mishawaka High School, Sharon Smith wrote and illustrated a humorous teen advice column for the school newspaper, the Alltold. Her mother encouraged her to submit her cartoons to the South Bend Tribune. "Atomic Teens," printed on the newspaper's teen page, was the result. In May 1950, McNaught Syndicate picked up the teenaged artist's feature, renaming it "Buttons an' Beaux" for national syndication. "Buttons an' Beaux" ran in newspapers until 1952. The popular song "Buttons and Bows" had won an Academy Award for best song in 1948. The punning title of Sharon's comic panel would have capitalized on the popularity of the song.
Sharon Smith attended Bradley University and graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1954. The following year she married George C. Koester. While living with her husband in Seattle, she did freelance artwork as well as design work for a children's program on a local television station. The young couple spent two years in Seattle. In 1957, when she was just twenty-five years old, Sharon had her first book published. Entitled Where Are You Going Today?, it had been submitted to its publisher by Sharon's mother without her knowledge. More than two dozen children's books followed, her last being Kitty & Me from 2014.
Sharon Smith was married and divorced twice. Her second husband was Hawaiian historian and author Herbert "Herb" Kawainui Kāne (1928-2011). The late Mr. Kāne was an extraordinary artist and illustrator in his own right.
Sharon Kane lived in Glencoe, Illinois, and Plano, Texas. She died on November 3, 2021, at age eighty-nine. Her art is in the collections of the Northern Indiana Historical Society and the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. She also created a mural in the Bloomingdale Public Library in Illinois. The scene is a woodland scene, perhaps recalling her childhood in Mishawaka. "It was a rural life," she remembered, "with hills and woodland and wide open spaces." These are the things we remember of our Hoosier homes.
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To read more on Sharon Smith Kane, see "Sharon Smith Kane, February 18, 1932-November 3, 2021" by Andrew Farago on the website of The Comics Journal, dated December 13, 2021, by clicking here.
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I have pictures from just one of Sharon Smith Kane's books to show today. These are from Tie My Shoe by Helen Wing (1964). The interior drawings shown here are two of my favorites and two of the best from the book, I think. These and other drawings made by women artists show just how well women depict children, much better, in my opinion, than the average male artist. Men tend to draw children as miniature adults, whereas women see and understand and can draw the essential childness of children. Anyway, please enjoy these pictures and join me in remembering the life and work of Sharon Smith Kane.
Updated on July 17, 2022.
Original text copyright 2021, 2024 Terence E. Hanley
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