Gray, Harold Lincoln (January 20, 1894 - May 9, 1968)

Harold Lincoln Gray (January 20, 1894 - May 9, 1968) was an American cartoonist and the creator of Little Orphan Annie. Born in Illinois, Gray's parents both died before his graduated from high school in 1912. He attended Purdue University and graduated in 1917 with an engineering degree. After graduation, Gray worked for the Chicago Tribune as a reporter. Gray served in the military during World War I as a bayont instructor. He returned to the Chicago Tribune after being disch arged from the military and worked there until 1919, when he left to pursue commercial art as a freelancer. Gray did the lettering for The Gumps, a comic strip by Sidney Smith, from 1921 until 1924. In 1924 Gray created a strip called Little Orphan Otto, which the Chicago Tribune editor renamed Little Orphan Annie. Little Orphan Annie debuted on August 5, 1924, and continued to grow and evolve. Little Orphan Annie's success made Gray a multimillionaire. He died of cancer in La Jolla, California. Gray married twice. After his is first wife Doris C. Platt, died in late 1925, he remarried in 1929 to Winifred Frost.