Laughter through tears for Marlette

Friends celebrate the life of the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist who died in an auto accident

HURDLE MILLS -- ****************************

CORRECTION: A Sunday story on Page 4B of the City & State section reported incorrectly where cartoonist Doug Marlette was working when he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988. The award was for work done at The Charlotte Observer and The Atlanta Constitution.

****************************

The life of Doug Marlette was charged with humor, irreverence and often raucous cheer, qualities that prevailed in the celebration Saturday that marked his passing.

The cartoonist and author, who rose to fame most notably as an editorial cartoonist for Newsday and the creator of the syndicated comic strip "Kudzu," died instantly in an auto accident Tuesday in Mississippi.

About 250 people turned out for funeral services at a small, spartan church outside Hillsborough. They came to mourn, remember and pay tribute to the man whose penchant for biting satire offended perhaps as many as it enlightened.

Kathleen Parker, a Washington-based columnist, friend and one of 10 eulogists who spoke Saturday, said Marlette was the backbone of an "irreverent band of fellow truth seekers." Perhaps the closest of Marlette's kindred spirits, famed novelist Pat Conroy, also spoke Saturday.

"Doug's own flame was too bright, too hot," said Parker, choking back tears. A portrait of Marlette -- pen in hand -- stood beside her near the modest altar at Walnut Grove United Methodist Church. Marlette, who was an Episcopalian for most of his life, switched to the Walnut Grove church after offending Brooks Graebner, a minister at the Episcopal church he and his family attended. Graebner felt satirized by a character in Marlette's novel, "The Bridge."

"The world was too much for him, and he was too much for the world," Parker said.

Some cried. More shed tears of laughter as speakers shared Marlette moments that captured his love of the ludicrous.

"No one was safe from Marlette -- no one at all," friend and political writer Joe Klein said. He recalled the hate mail and death threats aimed at the sharp-witted satirist, known best perhaps for his mockery of former Sen. Jesse Helms and fallen televangelist Jim Bakker. "As far as I could tell, he deserved every single one of them," Klein said. The crowd laughed and cheered.

Marlette, a Greensboro native, attended Florida State University and worked for The Charlotte Observer, Atlanta Journal Constitution and Newsday, where he won a Pulitzer Prize.

He moved with his wife and son to an estate in Hillsborough in 1991 and commuted regularly to New York, where he continued to write and draw for Newsday.

While living in Hillsborough, Marlette drew ire from the community's Chapel Hill-centric intelligentsia. A clique of Hillsborough novelists, including Allan Gurganus, attacked Marlette over their perceived portrayal in "The Bridge," which was based loosely on people and events of the mostly rural community.

Irreverent and at times incendiary references to that feud marked Saturday's ceremony.

"The proudest thing on my resume is that I am not a Hillsborough novelist," said Conroy, author of "Conrack" and "The Prince of Tides." His words incited cheers among the packed house of mostly older adults.

Conroy lambasted Gurganus and other Hillsborough writers for their attacks on Marlette's work. He weaved in a short account of the disdain he and Marlette shared for knee-jerk reactions to the Duke lacrosse affair.

"Doug and I hated what happened to the Duke lacrosse team and the lynch mob that pursued them because of the stupid group of 88," he said, referring to an alliance of Duke professors who denounced team members following unsubstantiated allegations of rape.

But most of Conroy's eulogy was filled with humor and, in the end, warm sentiment.

"What do you do when your heart breaks and you can't call Doug Marlette to fix it?"