March is Women’s History Month
Anahid Dinkjian was born on September 2, 1918, in Fairlawn, New Jersey, according to the Connecticut Death Index at Ancestry.com.
In the 1920 United States Census, Dinkjian (line 53) was the youngest of four children born to John (line 47), a farm laborer, and Zohran, both Armenian immigrants. Dinkjian’s father’s brother was the head of the household. Also living with them was Dinkjian’s paternal grandmother. They lived in Caldwell, New Jersey on Two Bridges Road.
The 1930 census counted Dinkjian (line 84), her parents and siblings in West New York, New Jersey at 619 Washington Street.
Dinkjian was a student at Memorial High School in West New York and graduated in 1936. Her first name was spelled with two Ns. Apparently she had been accepted at Cooper Union’s art program but her name did not appear in any of its yearbooks. One of her schoolmates was Charles Mazoujian who would enroll at Pratt Institute.
The Humanist yearbook
Charles Mazoujian (top)
Dinkjian (bottom)
According to the 1940 census, Dinkjian (line 26) lived with her parents and a brother in West New York at 441 17th Street. Her occupation was artist.
Dinkjian has not yet been found in the 1950 census which was enumerated in April.
The New Jersey Marriage Index, at Ancestry.com, said Dinkjian married Jack Kalajian in September 1950 in Union City. Her husband, a year younger, also lived in West New York as recorded in the 1950 census. Perhaps they knew each other at school. He was an electrical engineer.
Dinkjian did mostly inking and some lettering on several Dell comic books in 1949, 1951 and 1952. The Grand Comics Database has a list. She was mentioned in Michael Barrier’s book, Funnybooks: The Improbable Glories of the Best American Comic Books (2015).
The 1953 New York, New York city directory listed a Jack Kalajian at 204 East 118th Street in Manhattan.
The Catalog of Copyright Entries, Third Series, Volume 11, Part 1, Number 2, Books and Pamphlets, July–December 1957 said Dinkjian, as Anahid Kalajian, was involved with the Captain Kangaroo coloring book by Whitman Publishing, number 1154. (In 1958 the coloring book, with the same number, was revised with a new cover, and interior art by Michael Sekowsky.)
The 75th anniversary program of the Holy Cross Armenian Church of Union City, New Jersey, devoted several pages to its donors which included Dinkjian and her husband.
Dinkjian’s husband passed away on August 24, 2008 in Greenwich, Connecticut. His address, on the death certificate, was 3203 Theall in Rye, New York.
Dinkjian passed away on December 26, 2012, in Greenwich. She had the same address.
Women in Comics Posts
Ruth Atkinson, Olive Bailey, Valerie Barclay, Vivian Berg, Helen Chu aka Duffy Mohler, Ellen Cole, Corinne Boyd Dillon, Anahid Dinkjian,
Barbara Clark Fogel, Evelyn Gaines aka Lynn Lovelace, Merna Gamble, Gerda Gattel, Selma Meyers Gleit, Jane Krom Grammer, Anita Greene,
Georgette Sauterel, Marie Severin, Marcia Snyder, Lora Sprang aka Pat Gordon, Serena Summerfield, Daisy Swayze, Terry Szenics, Claire Szep,
(Next post on Monday: Peter Dom, Cartoonist, Letterer and Type Designer)
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