Cobeans Visit Campus
Sam and Anne Cobean at the home of R. M. McCool
R.M. McCool '31, Anne's father, is former city manager of Norman. The McCool residence was telephoned and a smooth feminine voice answered, "Surely, we'd be glad to talk to you."
The voice belongs to Anne. Husband Sam is a quiet, rosy-cheeked fellow in a sleeveless shirt and faded old khakis. He drives a sleek, low-slung convertible.
In ten years he has skyrocketed from studying law and journalism at the University through Hollywood and the Army to cartooning for the country's leading publications.
He stretched out on the McCool couch. He'd been working on some ads that had to be in the mail. When he finished them he browsed around the Art School. He hadn't eaten lunch. Would Anne mind making a cheese sandwich? He chatted between munches.
Sam was born in Pennsylvania, but after his parents died he moved to Tulsa, then attended the University of Oklahoma. He served two hitches in 1936-37 as editor of the Covered Wagon, campus humor magazine. He earned a reputation for packing the sheet with cartoons. He left the University to do some artful pencil pushing through "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" for Walt Disney.
The McCool clan forms a sizeable alumni "Who's Who." Lieut. R.M. McCool, Jr., '41ba, joined the naval science faculty in mid-April. A brother of Anne, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for heroic action in 1945. He remained aboard his ship, although he was wounded, so that the ship could be salvaged for further use. He saved his comrades aboard another ship sunk by suicide planes off Okinawa. At the age of 19 he was graduated from the University. He majored in government. In '43 he was graduated from the United States Naval Academy.
His wife, Mrs. R.M. McCool, Jr. (Elaine Larecy '42ba), was graduated in journalism. She edited the 1945 Sooner Magazine.
Anne's older sister is Mrs. John W. Corrigan (Elizabeth McCool '34ba, '35ma). The Corrigans live in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
"Baby" alumna of the McCool family is Mrs. Charles Terry (Frances McCool '46ba). Her husband, Charles Terry, '41, is meterologist at McDill Field, Florida.
After Anne and cartoonist Sam were married, he joined the Army and was a private in the Signal Corps, drawing animated training films.
Saturday Evening Post and Collier's began to buy his gently sardonic drawings while Sam was still in the Army. He now does art work for Collier's, Mademoiselle, Living and others, but the New Yorker gets first crack at most of this stuff.
A Cobean-drawn bride picture appears on the June cover of Esquire. Still chewing on his cheese sandwich, Sam said booming Oklahoma is "A fertile breeding ground for new talent."
Biggest change here since his sleepy student days, he said, is "The New York rush between classes. Campus corner is just like Times Square--everybody in a hurry and you wonder where they're all going."
Sam Cobean is cosmopolitan, but he's in no
hurry. He and Anne alternate between living in their New York
City apartment and on their farm at Seneca Lake, New York.
Sam does much of his drawing while they are at the farm. "Spasmodic" is the word he uses to describe his work habits. "I work very hard for awhile then I don't work," he says.
He works hard enough to keep the "bank" behind his New Yorker desk filled with pictures for future use. He also peppers the pages of many magazines with his advertisement cartoons.
On their Seneca Lake farm the Cobeans have two horses, a colt, a dog and two hampsters (Ratlike little creatures minus tails).
It was almost time for the Cobeans to go to a party at the home of a University faculty member, Anne, always polished looking as one of Sam's Esquire drawings, didn't need to get read for the party. Sam didn't.
They stepped into the convertible. Sam sat in careless ease behind the steering wheel, cruising around Norman. He didn't know exactly where the party was to be given. But that didn't bother him. Nothing perturbed Sam.
And, eventually, he found the house. At the party the wives congregated around Anne. Suit-clad University artists clustered near Sam. Sam was still wearing his battered suntans and his sleeveless shirt.
But the people didn't notice. They were too interested in the man, Sam. His title on the New Yorker?
His deeply suntanned faced beamed good naturedly. "They just call me Sam," he said.
Sam does much of his drawing while they are at the farm. "Spasmodic" is the word he uses to describe his work habits. "I work very hard for awhile then I don't work," he says.
He works hard enough to keep the "bank" behind his New Yorker desk filled with pictures for future use. He also peppers the pages of many magazines with his advertisement cartoons.
On their Seneca Lake farm the Cobeans have two horses, a colt, a dog and two hampsters (Ratlike little creatures minus tails).
It was almost time for the Cobeans to go to a party at the home of a University faculty member, Anne, always polished looking as one of Sam's Esquire drawings, didn't need to get read for the party. Sam didn't.
They stepped into the convertible. Sam sat in careless ease behind the steering wheel, cruising around Norman. He didn't know exactly where the party was to be given. But that didn't bother him. Nothing perturbed Sam.
And, eventually, he found the house. At the party the wives congregated around Anne. Suit-clad University artists clustered near Sam. Sam was still wearing his battered suntans and his sleeveless shirt.
But the people didn't notice. They were too interested in the man, Sam. His title on the New Yorker?
His deeply suntanned faced beamed good naturedly. "They just call me Sam," he said.