The Art Henrikson that I knew as his young daughter acted like a kid himself. He spent his days drawing cartoons, playing show tunes on our piano, and making up commercials advertising fictional products.

Only later did I realize that not all dads spent their days doing activities which kids would enjoy. Other dads wore suits, commuted to Chicago, and were too tired to play with their kids at night.  My dad, who worked at home, was popular with the neighborhood kids.

Born in Chicago in 1921, my dad as a youth loved the fine arts. He practiced his drawing, piano-playing and musical composition skills at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.  A 1938 1/2 Austin High School graduate, he was the editor and cartoonist of his yearbook and the school newspaper. My dad began journalism studies at Northwestern University in September 1939. He met my mother, Des Moines native Lois Wessling, at a dance the first week of college. He was on the editorial staff of the Purple Parrot, Northwestern's monthly humor magazine. Many cartoons spoofing campus leaders were featured. 

The World War II draft interrupted my dad's college career in August 1942. After graduating from OCS, my dad served as a Lieutenant in the U. S. Army Air Force Medical Corps  at Walla Walla Army Air Field (Washington state); Avon Park Army Air Field, Avon Park, Florida; and MacDill Army Air Field in Tampa, Florida. After military administrators learned of my dad's cartooning talent, they assigned him to draw both motivational and health cartoons for GIs worldwide. My dad finally graduated from Northwestern in June 1946 after his discharge.

In 1955, my parents and I moved from Chicago to northwest suburban Des Plaines, and my two younger sisters were born. My mom was my dad's secretary, accountant and marketing manager. With persistence, my dad became an editorial cartoonist for the Rockford Newspapers, Inc., the Des Plaines Journal, and The Daily Herald. He created the Henrikson Illinois Cartoon Service and drew cartoons for 40 weekly and daily Illinois newspapers. My dad was famous for giving talks on cartooning ("chalk talks") to clubs and school asssemblies. In the 2000s, my dad drew humorous weekly cartoons for The Scribbler in the Brandon Times, and he sold many cartoons to Woman's World magazine. He drew and emailed humorous weekly Artoons to family and friends until his final illness in 2012.

My dad's editorial cartoons reached beyond the Chicago area. They were published in Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year for many years. As a member of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC), my dad met and drew caricatures of several Presidents, including JFK, LBJ, and Richard Nixon.