Damon Runyun

A Kansas Portrait

Harry the Horse, Nicely-Nicely Johnson, Sky Masterson, and other such Broadway characters immediately come to mind when one thinks of newspaperman and author Damon Runyon. Yet, although he is indelibly identified with Manhattan, New York, Runyon was actually a westerner, born in the Kansas Manhattan in 1860.

Runyon's father, A. L. Runyon, served in western Kansas with the 19th Kansas Cavalry in 1868-1869 during a period of conflict between whites and Native Americans. At the time of Damon's birth, A. L. was the editor and proprietor of the Manhattan Enterprise, but financial difficulties soon prompted the family's move to Clay Center and then to Wellington. By 1887 his mother's illness made another move seem advisable, and the Runyons left Kansas and settled in Pueblo, Colorado.

Following service in the Spanish American War, Damon Runyon was a reporter with the Pueblo Chieftain, moving on later to newspapers in Denver. In 1911 he joined the William Randolph Hearst organization as a staff member on the New York American, and he was associated with the Hearst enterprises for the rest of his life.

Noted as a sports writer and columnist, Runyon also wrote numerous short stories, some of which were included in the book, Guys and Dolls, later a successful Broadway musical and a movie.

Today the Damon Runyon Memorial Fund for Cancer Research, founded by his friends after his death in 1946, serves as a lasting tribute to this popular and well-known figure.