Remembering Shawkey Saba

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As a staff artist at WSAZ-TV, the late Shawkey Saba played
a key role in the station’s early years.

 File photo | The Herald-Dispatch

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HUNTINGTON — Staff artist Shawkey Saba was a key figure in the early days
 of WSAZ-TV. He was responsible for all the station’s art and graphics
 and early on had his own 15-minute program, “Let’s Doodle.”

Born in 1928, he was a 1946 graduate of Stonewall Jackson High
School in Charleston, attended Boston School of Art and
 majored in journalism at Morris Harvey College in
 Charleston, where he was art editor of the
 student newspaper and college yearbook.
He also drew editorial and sports
cartoons for the Charleston
newspapers.

He was employed as an artist in the display department of
The Diamond and Stone & Thomas department stores
in Charleston. He was a candidate for the Walt
Disney Animation Studios in Burbank,
 California, but a cartoonist strike
 prevented his employment.
Employed for 41 years at
WSAZ, he retired
in 1990.

As the first artist with WSAZ, he originated “Let’s Doodle,”
a TV program instructing children on the basics of art
and cartooning. He later appeared on various
 live studio programs, often entertaining
studio audiences with musical
 illustrations.

Saba was a member of Huntington’s First Presbyterian Church, a
50-year member of the Masonic Lodge No. 53 in Huntington
and a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Mason, a Noble in the
 Beni Kedem Shrine Temple of Charleston and a
long-time board member with the Huntington
YMCA. In 2011 he was inducted into
the West Virginia Hall of Fame.

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Note:  This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on Nov. 8, 2022..

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