Robert "Robb" Edwin Beebe was born March 17, 1891 in Ashtabula, Ohio. His father. Edwin Robert Beebe, was born in 1866 in Ohio. His mother, Minerva I. Mann, was born in 1866 in Iowa. His parents married in 1890 and had one child. His father was a traveling salesman.
On September 24, 1896 his father died at the age of twenty-eight in Muncie, Indiana.
After his father's death he and his widowed mother moved to live with her parents. Her father, John F. Mann, was born in 1839 in Ohio. Her mother, Mary A. Mann, was born in 1834 in Ireland. His Uncle, William W. Mann, who was born in 1877 in Ohio, also lived with the family at 98 Prospect Street in Ashtabula. His grandfather worked as a hostler. His mother worked as a saleswoman to help support the family.
In June of 1909 Robert Beebe graduated high school, where he had enjoyed art classes and became interested in a career as a commercial artist.
That same year the family moved to 19 Cleveland Street in Ashtabula and his mother began to work as a bookkeeper at the offices of the local Gas Company.
In 1910 Robert Beebe began to study at Western Reserve University in Cleveland. While a student, he also attended weekend art classes at the Cleveland School of Art.
In 1912 he moved to Chicago to study art for two years at the Art Institute of Chicago.
While still an art student he began to work as a staff artist at an advertising agency serving the Chicago publishing industry.
In May of 1913 he finished art training in Chicago and returned home to Ashtabula, Ohio. He lived at 44 McGovern Avenue and began to work as a freelance artist in the local newspaper advertising industry. He began to sign his name "Robb Beebe" with a unique spelling of his first name.
On May 31, 1917 during the Great War he enlisted in the Marine Corps. He was recorded at the time to be tall, slender, with brown eyes and hair. He served and was honorably discharged in 1919, after which he returned home to Ashtabula.
On June 14, 1919 he married Catherine Elizabeth Herman in Cleveland, Ohio. She was born on February 26, 1894 in Ohio. She was educated by Ursulines, and did post graduate work at the Sargent School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She worked as a teacher. They moved to Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
Catherine Beebe became a children's book author, Most of her books were published with illustrations by Robb Beebe.
They had three children. Mary Marjorie Beebe (b.1925), Joseph Richard Beebe (b.1927), and Robert Collier Beebe (b. 1929).
In 1929 the family moved to Scarsdale, New York, from which suburban town both professional parents were able to commute into NYC on the Metro North Railroad in forty minutes to Grand Central Station in NYC.
He attended evening classes at the Art Students League at 215 West 57th Street.
In 1930 he also rented a shared studio in NYC at 156 East 52nd Street, from which he operated a freelance artist studio. His next door neighbor was the fashionable Mexican illustrator, George DeZayas (1895-1967), whose work appeared in Collier's, Harper's Bazaar, and The New York Herald Tribune.
During the 1930s Robb Beebe worked at an advertising agency, where he became art director. He also worked freelance and drew pen and ink interior story illustrations for the pulp magazine All-Story Love Tales.
He also contributed illustrations to national magazines, such as Woman's World, McClure's, Collier's, People's Home, The American Girl, and McCall's.
In 1935 the family moved to 150 Walthery Avenue in Ridgewood, New Jersey.
In 1935 the artist's wife was featured in a newspaper advertisement for Chipso Soap.
In 1936 the artist's family was featured in a product endorsement advertisement for Chipso Soap, which appeared in nationwide family magazines.
During the 1930s he illustrated several children's books, including the book Flash Gordon in The Caves of Mongo by Alex Raymond for Grosset & Dunlap Publications.
In 1945 the family moved to 15 South Highwood Avenue in Glen Rock, New Jersey.
The husband and wife team continued to write and illustrate children's books for the next two decades, including several religious subjects for the Catholic Press. Their titles include, Do You Like to Open Packages? (1937), A Wish For Timothy (1938), Just Around The Corner (1939), The Calendar (1940), Christmas - This Way (1940), Bob's Bike (1942), The Story of Jesus For Boys & Girls (1945), The Pet Show (1946), We Know The Mass (1948), This is Our Parish (1952), The Children's St. Anthony (1955), and The Children's St. Francis (1956), Saints For Boys and Girls (1959).
On October 8, 1959 The Independent Press of Bloomfield, N.J. reported that Catherine and Robb Beebe addressed a book fair at the local Catholic school. St. Thomas the Apostle.
Robb Beebe died in New Jersey at the age of seventy-five on May 3, 1966. His wife died at the age of ninety-eight on April 27, 1992.
© David Saunders 2014 |
