Inducted in 2011
Russell Myers, was known by his friends as “Roo” while at Will Rogers. He was born in Pittsburg, Kansas and moved to Tulsa, the Oil Capital of The World, in 1946, where his father taught at The University of Tulsa.
In Russell’s own words: “I was interested in cartooning as far back as I can remember and always wanted to draw a comic strip. Most of my early training came from drawing in my notebook when I should have been paying attention in class. After graduating from Tulsa University in 1960, I absconded to Kansas City, Missouri, to work for Hallmark, writing and drawing (hopefully) funny greeting cards.I submitted my first strip to the syndicates at age 16, while still at Will Rogers. Thus began a steady succession of failures that finally culminated in the sale of Broom-Hilda in 1970, a welcome break from my 15-year-long pattern of rejections. In 1964, I married Marina and we’re still going strong. We have two kids, Stewart and Rosie, neither of whom have ever been arrested for anything and seem to like us so we consider ourselves successful parents. We currently live in southern Oregon where I stare out at the Rogue River when not dozing or drawing Broom-Hilda.”
