Dorothy Henry (October 31, 1925 – December 21, 2020), bornDorothy Alice Leenknecht, was an American cartoonist and illustrator. She drew and wrote a newspaper comic strip,Bill and Sue, in London in the 1950s.
Dorothy Leenknecht was born inDetroit, Michigan, the daughter of August Leenknecht[1] and Dorothy Jean Waltham Leenknecht. She graduated fromCass Technical High School in 1943.[2] She studied art atWayne State University and theDetroit Institute of Arts, and with theArt Students League of New York.[3] She earned an associate degree in art fromSt. Clair County Community College.[4]
DuringWorld War II, Leenknecht was a member of theCivil Air Patrol.[4] While she was a young wife and mother living in London in the 1950s, Dorothy Manning took over drawing and writing an existing comic strip,Bill and Sue, for theDaily Herald.[2]
Back in Michigan, Dorothy Henry was staff illustrator at thePort Huron Times Herald.[5] She was an active member of the Port Huron Hiking Club,[6] the Blue Water Art Club, the Sarnia Rock and Fossil Club, and the Blue Water Lapidary Society.[7] She was president of the board of trustees at thePort Huron Museum. In 1975, she had a one-woman show of her works, including comic strips, commercial illustrations, sketches and paintings, at the Port Huron Museum.[8]
Dorothy Leenknecht married twice. Her first husband was Englishman Lawrence Sydney Rayson Manning; they married in 1951,[9] and had two children, Jessie and Robert. Her second husband was electrical engineer Howard Patrick Henry Jr.[7] She died in 2020, aged 95 years.[4]