Bill Yates

Who was Bill Yates?

Floyd Buford Yates, better known as Bill Yates, was a cartoonist who drew gag cartoons and comic strips before assuming the position of comic strip editor for King Features Syndicate in 1978.

Born in Samson, Alabama, Yates learned to cartoon by taking the W. L. Evans Correspondence Course, and his first sale was a five dollar first prize in The Open Road for Boys cartoon contest. He served as an aviator in the United States Navy during WWII, training fighter pilots in Corpus Christi, Texas, where he married Jessie Jean Hardy. As a journalism student at the University of Texas, he edited the campus humor magazine, The Texas Ranger.