Katherine Kerwin, born on January 11, 1912, joined Disney’s Ink and Paint Department as a painter on January 2, 1935. A few years later she became a “checker”, a job she held until her retirement in 1977. She passed away on June 25, 2002.
Katherine Kerwin: I was in high school and I only had high school art, I didn’t go on any more than that, and I just wanted to work here so badly. I’d stop by and show my samples to Hazel Sewell. She was our boss then, you know, Lily’s sister.1 And she seemingly liked them and said that she would like to hire me, but right then, the girls were just working part time anyway.
Dave Smith: What year was this?
KK: I started a class here in December of ’34, so it was probably a couple of years before that I was bugging them.
DS: But you’d been seeing the Disney cartoons in the theater.
KK: Oh yes, and I wasn’t a real good artist or anything, but I always did it at home and thought I could be.
