More Vernon Greene

Sherri, of Vancouver, Washington, has sent me some interesting scans concerning Vernon Greene, who took over Bringing up Father in 1954. Vancouver is a fairly large city on the North bank of the Columbia River. Battle Ground borders Vancouver on the north east. I grew up in Trail, British Columbia, on the Canadian side of the Columbia River, but I only made it as far south as Spokane myself.

Recently Sherri purchased a little memory book of Battle Ground High School Class of 1926 (Vernon Greene’s Class). Inside there is an undated newspaper clipping (from approx. June 3rd 1929) about Vernon; who was leaving for a new position at the Toledo News Bee. You can see from the school page that his nickname was “V.V.” Greene's high school graduation was on May 27, 1926.

Sherri thought the Greene image of the moustachio’d older man might be that of a school official. The original owner of the memory book was Adelma Peterson. The Greene comic strip below was from the Canadian Star Weekly for 14 April 1956. Thanks Sherri!

Vernon V. Greene (1908-1965)

Vernon Greene was born 12 Sept 1908 and grew up on a 650 acre ranch in Battleground, Washington, with 40 riding horses at his disposal. He worked on the ranch and as a logger and blacksmith. He began drawing editorial cartoons at 17, in 1930, for the Oregon Journal which lasted until 1943 when he took over Cliff Sterrett’s Polly and Her Pals with the aid of a ghost writer. His stint on Polly lasted 5 years and earned him a good living. He then spent three years drawing Walter Gibson’s Shadow comic strip (and the comic book).

During the war Greene drew Mac the Medic and contributed pages of Charlie Conscript cartoons to PIC magazine. He also drew comics on the weekends for bubble gum manufacturers. Two gum comics would pay him a cool $500. In 1954 he took over George McManus’s Bringing Up Father for King Features. Greene died on 5 June 1965 at age 56.