Fred Harman (February 9, 1902 - January 2, 1982) is best known as the artist of Red Ryder, "America's famous fighting cowboy." The Red Ryder Round-up is an annual July 4th weekend event in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, home of the Fred Harman Art Museum.

Harman was two months old when his parents moved from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Pagosa Springs, Colorado, where he grew up familiar with horses and the ranching lifestyle. Working as a pressman’s helper at The Kansas City Star, he came in contact with the artists employed by the newspaper.

He was 20 years old when he began drawing cartoons and ads at the Kansas City Filmad Co., where he met Walt Disney. The two were briefly partners in Kansas City, and Harman's brother, Hugh Harman, also worked for Disney. After Disney headed for Hollywood, eventually so did the Harman brothers. On the West Coast, Fred Harman edited, illustrated and published a Western magazine that collapsed after three issues.

Red Ryder

When Harman drew his Bronc Peeler strip, he attempted to syndicate it himself, visiting numerous West Coast newspaper offices. In 1938, he met merchandising entrepreneur Stephen Slesinger and found success. He worked with Slesinger for a year on what would become Red Ryder. Slesinger sold the strip to NEA and embarked on an intensive campaign of merchandising and licensing with a seemingly endless parade of comic books, Big Little Books, novels, serial chapters, radio programs and products.

National Cowboy Hall of Fame

After Harman retired from the strip in 1964, he turned to painting at his Albuquerque studio. He was one of the original 1965 members of the Cowboy Artists of America along with Joe Beeler, Charlie Dye, John Hampton and George Phippen, and Harman's paintings were included in the first annual exhibition of the Cowboy Artists of America on September 9, 1966 at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.

Among other honors, Harman was one of only 75 white men in history to be adopted into the Navajo Nation. He died in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1982.

External links

Fred Harman Western Art Museum

Cowboy Artists of America history

Find a Grave (burial site)

Category:1902 births Category:1982 deaths Category:American comic strip cartoonists Category:Artists of the American West Category:Comic strip cartoonists Category:People from Burbank, California

Coordinates	°′″N°′″N
Honorific-prefix	The Right Honourable
Name	Harriet Harman
Honorific-suffix	QC (Hon) MP
Office	Shadow Deputy Prime Minister
Leader	Ed Miliband
Term start	8 October 2010
Predecessor	Jack Straw
Office1	Shadow Secretary of State for International Development
Leader1	Ed Miliband
Term start1	8 October 2010
Predecessor1	Douglas Alexander
Office4	Deputy Leader of the Labour Party
Leader4	Gordon BrownEd Miliband
Term start4	24 June 2007
Predecessor4	John Prescott
Office5	Labour Party Chair
Leader5	Gordon Brown Following the resignation of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister and Labour Leader, Harman became Party Leader and replaced Conservative Party Leader David Cameron (who became Prime Minister) as Leader of the Opposition. She served in both roles until the Labour party elected Ed Miliband as Leader. Miliband appointed her Shadow Deputy Prime Minister and Shadow Secretary of State for International Development. She will act as stand-in Leader during Prime Minister's Questions, when Miliband is away. She is the current female MP with the longest period of continuous service in the House of Commons.
Name	Harman, Harriet
Short description	Lawyer
Date of birth	30 July 1950
Place of birth	Marylebone, London, England, United Kingdom

Category:1950 births Category:Alumni of the University of York Category:British female MPs Category:British politicians convicted of crimes Category:British Queen's Counsel Category:British Secretaries of State Category:Female members of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs Category:Leaders of the Labour Party (UK) Category:Leaders of the House of Commons Category:Leaders of the Opposition (United Kingdom) Category:Living people Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for English constituencies Category:Old Paulinas Category:Politics of Southwark Category:Queen's Counsel 2001–2100 Category:Solicitors General for England and Wales Category:UK MPs 1979–1983 Category:UK MPs 1983–1987 Category:UK MPs 1987–1992 Category:UK MPs 1992–1997 Category:UK MPs 1997–2001 Category:UK MPs 2001–2005 Category:UK MPs 2005–2010 Category:UK MPs 2010–

Coordinates	°′″N°′″N
Name	Diane Abbott MP
Office	Shadow Minister for Public Health
Leader	Ed Miliband
Predecessor	Gillian Merron
Term start	9 October 2010
Constituency mp1	Hackney North and Stoke Newington
Majority1	14,408 (31.0%)
Predecessor1	Ernest Roberts
Successor1	Incumbent
Term start1	11 June 1987
Birth date	September 27, 1953
Birth place	Paddington, London, England
Nationality	British
Spouse	Richard Thompson (divorced)
Party	Labour
Children	1
Alma mater	Newnham College, Cambridge
Website	www.dianeabbott.org.uk

Diane Julie Abbott (born 27 September 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987, when she became the first black woman to be elected to the House of Commons. She is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs. In May 2010, after Labour lost the 2010 general election, she entered the nomination phase of the contest to succeed Gordon Brown as Leader of the Labour Party.

Biography

Early life and career

Abbott was born to Jamaican immigrants, and attended Harrow County Grammar School for Girls, and then Newnham College, Cambridge, where she read history. At Cambridge, she was tutored by historian Simon Schama. After university she became an administration trainee at the Home Office (1976 to 1978), and then a Race Relations Officer at the National Council for Civil Liberties (1978 to 1980). Abbott was a researcher and reporter at Thames Television from 1980 to 1983 and then a researcher and reporter at the breakfast television company TV-am from 1983 to 1985. Abbott was a press officer at the Greater London Council under Ken Livingstone from 1985 to 1986 and Head of Press and Public Relations at Lambeth Council from 1986 to 1987. Abbott also gave a speech in defence of civil liberties, in the debate on the Counter-Terrorism Bill 2008 which won The Spectator magazine's 'Parliamentary Speech of the Year' award,.

Diane Abbott is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tribal Peoples.

2010 Labour Party leadership election

Diane Abbott announced on Radio 4's Today programme on 20 May 2010 her intention to stand in the Labour leadership contest. She complained that there was "little choice" between the other candidates, all white males. On Saturday 25 September 2010, Ed Miliband was announced as the new leader of the Labour Party. Abbott congratulated Miliband on his victory.

Abbott later failed to be elected to the Shadow Cabinet but was appointed Shadow Minister for Public Health by Ed Miliband.

Media work

Until her appointment as a junior shadow minister in October 2010, Abbott appeared alongside the former Conservative politician and media personality Michael Portillo on the BBC's weekly politics digest This Week. Abbott and Portillo have known each other since school, when they appeared in a joint school production of Romeo and Juliet (although not in the title roles), and Macbeth as Lady Macduff and Macduff respectively.

Controversy

Stance on private education

Her decision in 2003 to send her son to the private £10,000 a year City of London School, which she herself described as "indefensible" and "intellectually incoherent", caused controversy and was seen by some as hypocritical not least because she had previously criticised Tony Blair and Harriet Harman for sending their children to selective state schools. It later emerged that Abbott had applied to three private schools for her son. In June 2010 when questioned by Andrew Neil over the issue, Abbott defended her decision with the comment, "West Indian mums will go to the wall for their children." Neil replied, "So black mums love their kids more than white mums, do they?" and suggested that Abbott's comment was a racist remark, Abbott refused to reply. The week before Abbott had said, "I knew what could happen if my son went to the wrong school and got in with the wrong crowd. They are subjected to peer pressure and when that happens it’s very hard for a mother to save her son. Once a black boy is lost to the world of gangs it’s very hard to get them back."

Criticism of Finnish nurses

In 1996, Abbott was accused of racism when she suggested that "blonde, blue-eyed Finnish girls" in her local hospital in West London were unsuitable as nurses because they "may never have met a black person before." Abbott's comments were supported by Bernie Grant, a fellow black MP whose Tottenham constituency borders hers. "She is quite right," he said. "Bringing someone here from Finland who has never seen a black person before and expecting them to have some empathy with black people is nonsense." Conservative MP Ian Bruce stated that he had "never heard such racist rubbish from a Member of Parliament in recent years." Abbott was also accused of ignorance by the Anti-Racist Alliance executive member Marc Wadsworth, who is half-Finnish, who pointed out that at that time the Miss Finland, Lola Odusoga, was black, of Nigerian and Finnish descent. "She's a black Finn like me," he said. Abbott apologised for her remarks and said her main priority was to ensure that her constituents received medical treatment from the very best people "irrespective of race".

Failure to declare earnings

In 2004 following a complaint made by Andrew Rosindell MP, Abbott was investigated by the Committee on Standards and Privileges regarding payment she had received from the BBC. They found she had failed to declare earnings of £17,300 on the Register of Members Interests which had been received for appearances on the television programme This Week. The Committee upheld the complaint and required Abbott to apologise to the House.

Personal life

Abbott married Richard Thompson, an architect, in 1991; they divorced in 1993; they have one son. Abbott chose her Conservative MP voting pair, Jonathan Aitken, as her son's godfather.

References

External links

Diane Abbott MP official constituency website

Diane Abbott: You Ask The Questions The Independent, Feb 2010

Diane Abbott New Statesman profile

Interview with The Third Estate

Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs Category:UK MPs 1987–1992 Category:UK MPs 1992–1997 Category:UK MPs 1997–2001 Category:UK MPs 2001–2005 Category:UK MPs 2005–2010 Category:Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for English constituencies Category:Black British politicians Category:British female MPs Category:British political pundits Category:Councillors in Westminster Category:English people of Jamaican descent Category:Hackney Members of Parliament Category:People from Paddington Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Category:1953 births Category:Living people Category:Democratic socialists Category:UK MPs 2010–