GI cartoonist Bill Mauldin dies at 81
By GORDON DILLOW
The Orange County Register
As a young Army sergeant with the "Stars and Stripes" newspaper in World War II, Mauldin gained fame – and a Pulitzer Prize – for his cartoons depicting the humor amid the misery in the front lines. His best- known cartoon characters, Willie and Joe – dirty, unshaven, and mired in mud – spoke to millions of ordinary "dogfaces" for whom the war was a tough, miserable job that had to be done. Some high-ranking officers, who often were the targets of Mauldin's jabs, disapproved of Mauldin's anti-authoritarian, stand-up- for-the-little-guy approach, but ordinary GIs loved him.
After the war, Mauldin worked as a political cartoonist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Chicago Sun- Times, and was awarded another Pulitzer Prize for cartoons attacking racial segregation.
Afflicted with Alzheimer's disease, Mauldin, a New Mexico native, spent the past year in a Newport Beach nursing home, unable to write or speak. He was surrounded by many of the thousands of letters from World War II veterans sent to him after an Orange County Register report last summer concerning his condition. Most of the letter-writers thanked him for helping them laugh during the most difficult times of their lives.
