M. MacIntyre was born Marjorie Phyllis Hull on November 6, 1904 in Belleville, New Jersey. Her father, Louis Dunlop Hull, was born in 1884 in New Jersey. Her mother, Sarah Anna Schaefer, was born in 1887 in New York. Her parents married on March 31, 1904 and had one child. The family lived at 331 Washington Avenue in Belleville, NJ. The father was a butcher.
By 1909 the parents' marriage had ended unhappily. The mother had taken her five-year-old daughter and returned to live with her parents at 194 North 16th Street in East Orange, NJ. The grandfather, George A. Schaefer, was born in 1853 in Germany. The grandmother, Sara J. Corrie, was born in 1860 in Ireland. Marjorie Phyllis Hull was raised by her mother and her grandparents. The grandfather was a jeweler.
Marjorie Hull attended public school in East Orange. In June of 1922 she graduated from East Orange High School, and then attended the New Jersey College For Women in New Brunswick, where she studied art.
In June of 1924 Marjorie Hull completed the Sophomore year of college, after which she left school and entered the work force as a commercial artist.
In 1926 Marjorie Phyllis Hull married David William MacIntyre. He was born July 19, 1895 in NY. He worked as a scenic artist at the Empire All Star Film Company on Myrtle Avenue in Glendale, NY.
The newlyweds moved to East Orange, NJ, where they lived at 39 North 17th Street.
On April 19, 1927 Marjorie and David MacIntyre had a son, David Regnell MacIntyre.
By 1930 her husband had left home and the marriage had ended unhappily in divorce. Marjorie MacIntyre raised her son as a single parent in East Orange.
In May of 1936 Marjorie MacIntyre wrote, drew, lettered, and inked two features, "Ko Ko" and "Whiskers" that appeared in The Comics Magazine, one of America's first comic books that featured original materials, rather than reprinted newspaper comic strips. Her work later appeared in Funny Pages, and The Funny Picture Story Magazine. She signed her work for comic books as "M. MacIntyre" to disguise her gender in a male-dominant industry. Other artists who worked for this same publication included William Merle Allison, Vin Sullivan (1911-1999), Tom Cooper, Matt Curzon (1899-1975), Delos Palmer, Stan Randall (1894-1984), Oscar Ellis Edwards (1904-1945), Walt Kelly (1913-1973), Jerome Siegel (1914-1996) and Joe Shuster (1914-1992).
During the Great Depression she worked as a "supervisor of craftsmanship" for the WPA Federal Art Project, an enlightened government program that provided relief income for artists. Others who worked for the WPA included Delos Palmer, Elton Fax, Remington Schuyler, and George Avison.
By 1940 Marjorie MacIntyre lived with her son David (age twelve) at 4 Steuben Street in East Orange, NJ.
In 1943 during World War II Marjorie MacIntyre joined the Army and worked as an "occupational therapist." She taught art to recovering hospitalized servicemen. She and her son lived at 30 Hamilton Road in Glen Ridge, NJ.
In 1944 she was assigned to work at Camp Lee in Virginia, where she moved with her son, who was then age sixteen.
On April 9, 1946 the artist's ex-husband, David William MacIntyre, died at the age of fifty in New Jersey.
In September 28, 1946 the artist married her second husband, Richard John Johnson, in Petersburg, Virginia. He was born March 19, 1914 in Marksville, Louisiana, and was an Army Staff Sergeant at Camp Lee. The bride was ten years older than the groom. He had served as a vehicle maintenance supervisor with the Army's 3rd Battalion in Africa, Italy, France, and Germany.
In 1947 the family left Virginia and returned to her home in Glen Ridge, NJ, at 30 Hamilton Road, where her husband continued to serve with the local Army Reserve.
On September 15, 1950 the artist's son, David Regnell MacIntyre (age twenty-two), married Elizabeth Ellen Visnan of Newark, NJ. After his graduation from Rutgers University, the young couple moved to Arlington Heights, Illinois, where they had three children.
In 1951 Marjorie and Richard Johnson, left Glen Ridge, NJ, and moved to his parent's hometown, Evergreen, Louisiana, where he worked in the motor vehicle maintenance department at the local army base.
In 1952 her husband was deployed to serve in Korea.
In the 1960s her husband served in Vietnam.
In 1979, at the age of sixty-five, her husband retired from military service.
On June 6, 1989 Richard Johnson, died at the age of seventy-five in Shreveport, LA.
After his death, Marjorie Johnson, age eighty-six, left Louisiana in 1990 and moved to live with her son's family in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
On February 26, 1993 the artist's son, David Regnell MacIntyre, died at the age of sixty-five.
After his death, Marjorie Johnson, age eighty-nine, became a resident at the Alden Poplar Creek Nursing Home in Hoffman Estates, IL.
Marjorie Phyllis Hull MacIntyre Johnson died at the age of ninety in Illinois on July 17, 1995.
© David Saunders 2019 |
