I recognized this Toronto guy as among the superior ranks of humorists in Canadian journalism. It was right around the time that he won his first Leacock Medal for Humour for Take My Family ... Please!
Lautens
was well established as both a journalist and humorist by the time I discovered
him, and with his children well into their teens and grown, his writing was
becoming less family oriented than it had been when the Take My Family stuff was written.
This early 1980s non-kid orientation was helpful in grabbing my then childless, twenty-something attention.
This early 1980s non-kid orientation was helpful in grabbing my then childless, twenty-something attention.
Although
Gary Lautens was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario (then Fort William) on November
3, 1929, he was raised in Hamilton. He
graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from McMaster in 1950 and immediately joined
the local daily, the Hamilton Spectator, where he eventually established
himself as a popular sports columnist.
He
married his wife, an almost beauty queen, Jackie in 1957. As described in his
book Take My Family... Please, the
couple had three children.
Lautens
joined the Toronto Star in December
1962. Pierre Berton had just left the Star and had been the paper’s high
profile columnist to that point. At the
Star, Lautens moved from sports to human interest columns. His career included stints as a writer and
periodic reporter for TV and a two-year term as Executive Managing Editor of the Star from 1982 to 1984.
From 1985 until his unexpected 1992 death from
a heart attack at 63, he wrote humour columns again - at times being the most
widely read columnist in Canada.