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Lou Erickson
© Lou Erickson, Atlantic Journal. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, MA
Lou Erickson
© Lou Erickson, Atlantic Journal. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, MA

Lou Erickson

Cartoonist, Atlanta Journal, American 1913-1990
Louis Bernard Erickson (1913-1990), or Lou Erickson, was an American editorial cartoonist and illustrator.

Louis Bernard Erickson was born on December 27, 1913 in Marcus, Washington. From 1934 to 1935 he took classes at Wentworth College in Spokane before joining the Civilian Conservation Corps to fight forest fires. During his time with the CCC he edited and illustrated a CCC newspaper called the Microphone.

Erickson enlisted in the Army Air Corps in WWII. During the war he drew the Separate Rations comic strip for Army Times.
Erickson became the editorial page cartoonist for the Atlanta Journal on October 16, 1961. Erickson was a prolific cartoonist whose work appeared in a variety of forms and depicted subjects beyond politics.Erickson illustrated several books.

Erickson retired from the Atlanta Journal on December 31, 1982. Following a stroke and several weeks in a coma, Lou Erickson died of a heart attack April 15, 1990 at Northside Hospital in Atlanta.