Rose Cecil O'Neill, the second child of William Patrick and Asenath Cecelia, was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, June 24, 1874. The family moved to Battle Creek, Nebraska, in 1876.

At age 14, Rose won an art contest for a drawing by a Nebraska school child sponsored by the Omaha World Herald. This started her in a career of illustrating stories in pen and ink. By age 17, she was illustrating "Arabian Nights" for a Denver Magazine, The Great Divide. By age 19, Rose had written a novel, Callista, with 63 illustrations. She took it and other drawings and headed for New York stopping in Chicago to see the 1893 World's Fair. There she saw her first modern paintings and sculptures.

Advised by a publisher to wait until she was grown to write, he encouraged her to continue drawing. Rose enrolled at the Convent of the Sisters of St. Regis in New York City where she studied three years . . . making illustrations for Truth, Collier's Weekly, Harper's Monthly, Weekly and Bazaar.

While Rose was working in New York, William Patrick moved his family to a homestead deep in the hills of Taney County, Missouri. The home consisted of a cabin where the family used books as chairs. Rose managed to send enough money home so in 1900 her brother, John Hugh, built a larger home for the family. The family named this home Bonniebrook, as it was situated beside a babbling brook.

In 1896, Rose married Gray Lathan and began signing her drawings, O'NeillLathan. Gray had no idea of mine and thine in the matter of money. He would go to offices and collect before Rose could get the drawings done and leave her penniless. Rose retreated to her beloved Bonniebrook and obtained a divorce.

At Bonniebrook, Rose began receiving charming unsigned letters. By and by one of the letters was signed Harry Leon Wilson. The letters continued for months. Then Rose and Callista returned to New York where her courtship by Harry began in earnest. In 1902 in Jersey City, Rose and Harry were married but there were difficulties in their rapport from the beginning. Harry's moods reduced Rose to absolute silence. Again, Rose retreated to Bonniebrook. When she expressed no desire to return to New York, her mother suggested she didn't need to go back. Rose and Harry were divorced in 1908.

In 1909, Rose created the Kewpie doll, a roly-poly elf with a fat child's body, small wings and a turnip top head. These cupids had appeared in head and tail pieces when Rose illustrated love stories in books and magazines. Edward Bok of the Ladies Home Journal cut out a number of these and sent them to Rose asking if she could make a series of illustrations of the little creatures. He said he would find someone to make accompanying verses. Rose wasn't about to allow anyone else to supply the dialogue for the series. Thus the Kewpie, a benevolent elf who did good deeds in a funny way, was created.

Using the Kewpies, she illustrated her children's poems in Woman's Home Companion and Good Housekeeping magazines, books, Sunday cartoons, and cutouts (paper dolls). These stories were composed in two-page formats of illustrations and rhymes. In 1910, Kewpies became a series in the Woman's Home Companion and The Kewpies and Dottie Darling, a children's book written and illustrated by Rose, was published.

Children began yearning for a Kewpie doll they could hold. Rose was in Paris, attending art school, making two pages of Kewpie adventures every month, illustrating stories for other magazines, as well as drawing "monsters" for her own personal satisfaction. She had not forgotten she was to model a Kewpie to be molded into a doll. She had made a beginning but as she had propped the figure only with a paintbrush, it had fallen over under the impact of her little Breton maid. As Rose was disinclined to starting the formless mass again, she asked a young sculpture student to help. Rose had made some well rounded-out drawings of a standing Kewpie, the proper size, three views, front, side and back; and the student came and "setup" the statue. By the end of the day it looked as if there was to be nothing Kewpish. She had setup a solid first sketch of a human child.

Since the student was unable to sculpt a Kewpie to Rose's standards, she had to take matters into her own hand and her own darling Kewpie with the absurd dimensions, tummy, topknot, wings, smile and all was developed. George Borgfeldt, the leading importer of toys at that time, asked that the statuette be delivered to his Paris office. The Kewpie was sent off to the toy factories in Germany, taking his smile.

The first endeavors of the factories were a shocking travesty of Kewpie's face and form. For some unguessable reason the factory had not cast the mold from the statuette. Some trusty "hand" had made a copy . . . well baked and all achieved in beautiful bisque. Rose went directly to Berlin. She stayed among the ancestral doll factories in the Thuringer Wald area of Germany until she had modeled twelve sizes of Kewpies and launched the factories. Prior to World War I, Kewpies were made of bisque in German factories. Due to the shipping embargo during the war, they were later made of bisque, wood pulp, chalk, and celluloid in the United States.

1911 saw The Kewpies, Their Book, a children's book by Rose, published. 1913, Rose obtained the first patent in the United States for the three dimensional Kewpie Doll. 1914, Kewpie Kutouts book by Rose was published. 1916, The Kewpie Primer, a reading book for children illustrated by Rose, was published. During the 1920s, Kewpies appeared in Good Housekeeping, The Delineator, and Ladies Home Journal.

Her advertising campaigns included Edison Phonographs, Pratt & Lambert Paints and Varnishes, Kelloggs' Corn Flakes, Rock Island Railroad and Oxydol Detergent. Rose's series of 98 Jell-O gelatin ads spanned from 1909 to 1922 and included a series of Jell-O premium cookbooks. These are displayed at the Jell-O museum in Leroy, New York.

In 1921, Rose held a one-woman Paris exhibit of her serious artwork she called "Sweet Monsters" at the Galerie Devambez in Paris. These drawings were at the same time mysterious and revealing, exalted and terrifying. These drawings showed another facet of this amazing artist's depth of creativity. In 1922, the Sweet Monsters were exhibited at the Widenstein and Company exhibition showrooms in New York City.

1923 saw the creation of Rose's next doll, Scootles, the Baby Tourist, who visited Kewpieville in her Kewpie stories. This doll was sculpted as a real baby.

During the period from 1904 to 1930, Rose published the following books while illustrating scores of other author's works. In 1904 her first novel was published, The Loves of Edwy. The Lady in the White Vail with five illustrations followed in 1909. Rose's poetry book, Master Mistress, was published in 1922. In 1928 Rose's story book, The Kewpies and the Runaway Baby, was published. Rose's novel, Garda, was published in 1929 and it was followed a year later by another novel, The Goblin Woman.

In 1936, Rose and Callista returned to Bonniebrook to care for her ailing mother. Rose found herself destitute. Her artwork was passe. She made a series of pin-ups drawings of Vargas-type girls but was never able to regain her former glory.

Rose sculpted a squatty little laughing Buddha she called Ho-Ho in 1940. These were made using a rubber mold and plaster of paris in three sizes. Unfortunately, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941, and the Buddha-like figurine never became popular.

Rose passed away April 6, 1944, in Springfield, Missouri, after suffering a series of mild strokes. She is buried in her family cemetery at her beloved Bonniebrook.

In April,1967, a group of Rose O'Neill admirers, met in Branson, Missouri. They formed what was later to be called the International Rose O'Neill Club (IROC). Three to five hundred loyal Rose O'Neill memorabilia collectors from all over the world meet in Branson each year to enjoy fellowship, swap treasures, and learn more about the life and artistic feats of this remarkable woman. If interested, please check their Internet site at http://www.kewpieroseoneillclub.com or write the International Rose O'Neill Club, PO Box 668, Branson, Missouri, 65616.

The Bonniebrook Historical Society (BHS) was founded in 1975 to raise money to replicate Rose O'Neill's home at Bonniebrook. The house burned to the ground in 1947. Through donations, the house was completed in 1993. They have since added the Maggie Fisher Museum and a gift shop. For more information, their Internet site is http://www.kewpie-museum.com or Bonniebrook Historical Society, PO Box 263, Branson, Missouri, 65615.

To learn more about the life of Rose O'Neill, we recommend two books: The 1964 book, The One Rose by Rowena Godding Ruggles, which is in its second edition, but you will probably have to purchase it on the secondary market. The Story of Rose O'Neill, an autobiography, edited by Miriam Formanek-Brunell was published in 1997 by the University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Missouri, 65201.

Rose has twice been recognized by the United Postal Service with stamps commemorating her work. In 1997, Scootles appeared in the collection of Classic American Dolls and in 2000, Kewpie and Kewpidoodle were featured with 19 other outstanding American Illustrators.