11 Facts About Leslie Turner

Leslie Turner was an American cartoonist and writer who produced Captain Easy for more than three decades.

Leslie Turner dropped out of college for one term to attend the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.

Leslie Turner edited SMU's 1922 yearbook, and after his graduation that same year with an English degree, he worked at a Dallas engraving plant.

Leslie Turner then married Bethel Burson of Silverton, Texas, and the newlyweds headed for New York where he became a freelance illustrator with work published in a variety of magazines, including Redbook, Pictorial Review, Ladies' Home Journal and Boys' Life.

When Crane moved to Orlando, the Leslie Turner family followed in 1938, living at 1218 Conway Road, where Leslie Turner designed and built all the furniture in the house.

In 1943, when Crane left to do Buz Sawyer, Leslie Turner took over the daily Wash Tubbs, and his signature first appeared on the strip May 31,1943.

In January 1944, Leslie Turner made comic strip history when he observed a fighter plane flying over his home in Orlando.

Leslie Turner drew it into Wash Tubbs, surprising the War Department.

The aircraft was the Northrop P-61 Black Widow, and Leslie Turner's drawing of it appeared two days before the Army's official announcement.

In 1949, Leslie Turner did extensive research into alcoholism in order to write a strip sequence on the rehabilitation of drunkard Gig Wilty.

Ann Leslie Turner Cook found fame as the model for the Gerber Baby, trademarked art reproduced from a 1928 charcoal sketch by the Leslie Turner family's neighbor, artist Dorothy Hope Smith.