William Aloysius Keane (October 5, 1922 - November 8, 2011), better known as Bil Keane, was an American cartoonist notable for his work on the long-running newspaper comic The Family Circus, which began its run in 1960 and continues in syndication. His comic strip is featured in nearly 1,500 newspapers across the country.
Keane began his illustrating career in high school and continued drawing and creating comics during WWII for magazines like Yank and Stars and Stripes.
Keane married his wife Thelma Carne in 1948 and the couple have five children. She also served as his business and financial manager. Devoted to his wife, Keane based the mommy character in Family Circus after her. Thelma died of Alzheimer's disease in 2008.
When his wife died, Keane called her "the inspiration for all of my success. ...When the cartoon first appeared, she looked so much like Mommy that if she was in the supermarket pushing her cart around, people would come up to her and say, `Aren't you the mommy in `Family Circus?'"
Keane was a four-time recipient of the National Cartoonists Society's Award for Best Syndicated Panel, winning in 1967, 1971, 1973 and 1974. Then in 1982, Keane was named the Society's Cartoonist of the Year and received its top honor, the Reuben Award. He also received the Elzie Segar Award in 1982 for his unique contribution to the cartooning profession. Keane was honored with the Silver T-Square Award from the National Cartoonist Society in 2002 for "outstanding dedication" to the NCS and the cartooning profession.
In 1998, he became the tenth recipient of the Arizona Heritage Award, joining – among others – Barry Goldwater, Sandra Day O'Connor, Mo Udall and Erma Bombeck.
(Sources: Ology, Wiki, Huffington Post)
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