Editorial cartoonist Marshall Ramsey loves Mississippi.
Within a three-year period in his early 20s, Marshall Ramsey went from working as a high school janitor to having his cartoons published in the New York Times.
How did he do it?
Hard work, talent, and a message from his late father when he was a child.
“When I was 8 years old, I told my dad I wanted to be an editorial cartoonist. My dad’s response? ‘You’ll be the best one ever.’ That’s all I needed to hear.”
Today, Ramsey, 55, is still creating cartoons daily in Mississippi for a statewide audience that sees them online or on social media, rather than the newsprint of old.
Following more than two decades at The Clarion Ledger, Ramsey has spent the last five years working as editor-at-large at Mississippi Today, the Pulitzer Prize-winning, nonprofit and nonpartisan news website that boasts the largest news operation in the state.
What does the “editor at large” role encompass?
“In a week I’ll draw about seven to eight cartoons, create a weekly newsletter, do an interview show, and hit the road to events spreading the gospel of Mississippi Today all over the state,” Ramsey said.
“I have been so blessed to work at Mississippi Today. I get to work with an extremely talented staff of journalists at a place dedicated to making Mississippi a better place through impactful journalism.”
Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today’s editor-in-chief, said he’s never met someone as creative as Ramsey.
“His ability to take often complex political or social moments and make them relatable to everyday people never ceases to amaze me. I’m regularly blown away by how quickly Marshall comes up with powerful ways to tell stories,” Ganucheau said.
Back in his early Clarion Ledger days, you could find Ramsey sitting in his office crouched over a drawing table with a pen.
Today, he draws his cartoons on an iPad using an app called, Procreate.
Although the tools may be different, the ideas, the process, and the outcome are the same.
And where do those ideas come from?
“Are you kidding? I live here. It’s paradise for an editorial cartoonist,” Ramsey said.
Georgia Days, Volunteer Nights
Ramsey was raised in Marietta, Georgia.
He started drawing at age 3, and after a steady diet of Jack Davis drawings in Mad magazine and newspaper editorial cartoons involving Jimmy Carter in the 70s, Ramsey figured out his future early.
His father took Ramsey to watch Georgia play football against his alma mater, The University of Tennessee, in 1980.
“That was the first time I saw Herschel Walker play. There were 98,000 people in the stadium. That was it. I told my dad I wanted to go there, and six years later, I did,” Ramsey said.
Ramsey started out with an original comic strip at Tennessee’s campus newspaper, but the editor hated it.
“He told me if I dropped the strip, I could be the paper’s official editorial cartoonist,” Ramsey said.
While creating his campus paper cartoons, Ramsey got to know Charlie Daniel, the longtime editorial cartoonist for the Knoxville Journal, and later, the Knoxville News Sentinel.
What started as an interview for one of Ramsey’s college speech classes turned into a lifelong friendship with a mentor that continues to this day.
“He sat down with me and gave me his time and advice. Before you knew it, I was having dinner at his house. That was one of the wonderful things about college. Not only did I get an education, but I got amazing opportunities and experiences,” Ramsey said.
When Daniel would go on vacation, Ramsey — as a college senior — would fill in sometimes as an editorial cartoonist at the Knoxville Journal.
After Ramsey graduated, his first job was working as a janitor at Pope High School in Marietta, Georgia. Ramsey said the job changed his life.
“I was working with a woman there named Maggie. Maggie introduced to me to her daughter, Amy. Amy and I have been married now for 30 years. One of the best things that ever happened to me,” he said.
While he was a janitor, Ramsey took some classes at Kennesaw State University. He was drawing editorial cartoons for the school paper and won some important awards.
Not long after, Ramsey was hired as an advertising artist at the Marietta Journal, and later, as the editorial cartoonist at the Conroe Courier in Texas. There, he met an editor named Dan Turner. Turner once told him about a fair in Mississippi where he wanted to be buried after he passed. Little did Ramsey know then, that state and fair (Neshoba County) would play key roles in his professional future.
In a week I’ll draw about seven to eight cartoons, create a weekly newsletter, do an interview show, and hit the road to events spreading the gospel of Mississippi Today all over the state.
Mississippi Pages
Some of Ramsey’s cartoons were picked up and syndicated by the Copley News Service, based out of San Diego, California. That’s when Ramsey was published in the New York Times. He was later hired as creative director at Copley News Service.
While living and working in San Diego, Ramsey got a call from Turner about an editorial cartoonist opening at the Clarion Ledger in Mississippi.
“I quit and threw my hat in the ring. I got the job, and we moved to Mississippi in 1996. The only thing I knew about Mississippi at that time was what I saw in the movies,” Ramsey said.
David Hampton, the editorial page editor at the Clarion Ledger back then and Ramsey’s longest serving boss, said Ramsey was one of the most talented and creative people he ever worked with.
“I always looked forward to our morning planning meeting for the daily editorial page. Marshall would leave us all laughing about whatever issues were on the table that day. Marshall would offer up five to 10 cartoon ideas, and they were all great. You should have seen the stuff that never got published,” Hampton said.
Ramsey always made fun of those in power, regardless of their political affiliation.
“You always punch up. You lampoon people in power. That’s the job. Some politicians get it, others don’t,” Ramsey said.
Ramsey said former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour understood the cartoonist’s job fully.
“He told me once, ‘just draw me with a thin pen.’ Haley got it,” Ramsey said.
Ramsey had many opportunities to leave Mississippi for other jobs. But he said the people of the state, its artistic legacy, and active artist culture are the reasons he stayed to raise his family — Amy and their three sons — here.
“I first thought I might be here two years. But I just fell in love with the people. You can’t understand Mississippi driving from home to work. You have to go out and speak to the people. I’ve probably been to — or close to — every town in the state, whether it’s in churches, people’s homes, or at Rotary Club meetings. The people here are so gracious and welcoming,” Ramsey said.
Whether he’s creating cartoons that go viral — like his 2018 Barbara Bush obit cartoon where she’s reunited in heaven with her daughter Robin that she and President George H. W. Bush lost to leukemia in 1953 — or drawing cartoons of linemen as heroes restoring power in Mississippi after disasters, Ramsey is proud to call Mississippi home.
“Mississippi has been incredibly kind to my family and me — it has given us so much. I just hope that I’ve been able to give a little back. I do know that I’m a better person because I’ve lived here.”
For more information about Marshall Ramsey, his cartoons, his journalism, or his books, visit www.marshallramsey.com or subscribe to his newsletter, Marshall’s Mississippi, at www.mississippitoday.org.
