Don C. Wright

In the early years of the 20th century, Charles C. Wright sat

atop Bear Mountain in the San Bernardino National Forest in

Southern California and wrote a poem entitled "Redbird".

Now 100 years later, part of that poem will be inscribed on

the tombstone of his eldest son, Don C. Wright, who died at

90 years old on the evening of Palm Sunday.

"For at their feet a rebel rests, placed in peace by loving

hands to lie beneath granite stone".

Don, who was born on Tuesday, January 23, 1934 in Los

Angeles was indeed a rebel who went on to have multiple

successful careers including winning the Pulitzer Prize twice,

in 1980 and 1966, and being first runner up five more times.

"Don Wright, in his day, was on the editorial cartoonists' Mt.

Rushmore", commented one online reader who was

responding to a 90th birthday article in The Daily Cartoonist.

Another, Rich McKee, who was an artist at the Atlanta

Constitution newspaper who worked with Don covering the

1988 National Democratic Convention in Atlanta said in

response to the same article:

"Don Wright was a mythical figure. His concepts and humor

were sublime, and his draftsmanship was simple perfection.

Not a line was extraneous or wasted...Just a genuinely nice

and generous guy."

But before he was an award-winning editorial cartoonist for

The Palm Beach Post beginning in 1989 through 2008, he

was an award-winning photographer for the now defunct The

Miami News newspaper, an organization that was a real-

world embodiment of "The Front Page" movie, where there

were legendary feuds and legendary friendships.

As a photographer he in was in Havana, Cuba along the

embarcadero of Havana Harbor when in January 1959 Fidel

Castro and Che Guevara led their peasant revolutionaries in

overthrowing the government of Fulgencio Batista.

He photographed Muhammad Ali at the peak of his career at

the 5th Street Gym on Miami Beach and a young John

Fitzgerald Kennedy who sat for a hotel room portrait in a suit

jacket, shirt and tie and a pair of boxer shorts.

But, most memorably, is the famed Elvis photograph that is

still being reprinted today and is archived in the Time/Life

Magazine files in New York. There are still regular requests to

Don for its use.

One rare, hand printed copy from the original negative, was

recently auctioned by a music publishing house.

The photograph was taken at the old Olympia Theater in

Miami built on East Flagler Street in 1925 by Paramount

Studios. It was August 1956 and Elvis was still in his "Elvis

the Pelvis" era and public moralists were condemning his

indecency.

"I Want You, I Need You..." Elvis sang as Don and his fellow

photographer and good friend, ex-Marine Charlie Trainor,

snapped away.

Don photographed Britain's former World War II prime

minister Sir Winston Churchill and Aristotle Onassis on

Onassis' yacht off Palm Beach; multiple hurricanes, riots,

but the most fun was Needles, the big bay colt who was the

first Florida thoroughbred to enter and win the Kentucky

Derby and the Belmont Stakes in New York and be inducted

into the racing Hall of Fame.

Needles, who put the Florida thoroughbred industry in Ocala

on the map, was a "big clown" and "loved to ham it up for the

camera", said his owner Opal Heath.

At 16 hands and wearing his famed orange and blue colors,

Needles and Ms. Heath posed for Don in a memorable

photograph that measured a quarter of a page in The Miami

News.

While still a photographer, Don was drafted into the Army

five years after the end of the Korean War. He was a military

photographer assigned to the commanding officer of his

regiment to document the regiment's operations and

maneuvers.

When his tour of duty was complete, he returned to The

Miami News and was made graphics editor. After a

successful stint at the job, he quit because he wanted to be

an editorial cartoonist.

William Calhoun Baggs, the late legendary editor of The

News and a second father to Don, persuaded him to stay

and gave him the job he wanted. And the rest is history.

In addition to the Pulitzers, he was a five-time recipient of

the Overseas Press Club Award for foreign affairs, twice a

recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Journalism

Award, twice a recipient of the Sigma Delta Chi Award for

distinguished service in journalism and the National

Headliner Award for consistently outstanding editorial

cartoons. There were many more awards.

His early work is on permanent display at Syracuse

University in New York, and he has had one-man art shows in

Florida and Washington, DC. He created artwork for a Dino

De Laurentiis film about the American legal system and his

work was animated and distributed nationally by Newsweek

Broadcasting. His editorial cartoons were distributed

internationally including in China, Hong Kong, Europe, Asia

and Canada.

He is the author of three books and has been a member of

the Board of Overseers of Emerson College, Boston

University, was listed in Who's Who in America and has

lectured on photojournalism and the history of news

photography.

But he was most pleased by the impact of his editorial work,

11,000 drawings over the course of his career.

When Walt Disney died in 1966, Don drew Mickey and the

Disney characters in sorrow. The original of that drawing was

requested by Lillian Disney, Walt's widow, and upon her

death was bequeathed to the Library of Congress where it

still resides.

Alternate reactions occurred. After winning his first Pulitzer

in 1966 Don received a telegram the following morning at

9:25 am from George Wallace, the segregationist governor of

Alabama and future presidential candidate.

"Sometimes even the meanest cartoonists are

unaccountably decorated for their work. If the shoe fits,

wear it", it read. It is framed and in Don's home.

"I regret nothing", Don said on his 90th birthday while eating

his favorite rum cake. "I wanna fly away". It isn't clear

whether he was referring to the religious hymn or the Lenny

Kravitz song.

The family thanks Jessica, Janite, Jonas and Jake, who

lovingly helped care for him until the end.

The interment by Quattlebaum Funeral Home was private.

But a memorial service will be planned for a later date.