Born
Theresa Hilda Fellman in
Newburyport, Massachusetts, she was the daughter of a man who lettered roulette wheels. She admired the sports cartoons of
Willard Mullin, wanted to become a sports cartoonist and spent time sketching at sports events. She arrived in New York when she was 17 and spent two years working as a waitress at
Schrafft's. During the mid-1930s, she reconsidered her career plan after she entered both a sports cartoon and a funny cartoon in a newspaper contest, winning a prize with the funny cartoon. She led an active life during the late 1940s, serving as a
Camp Fire guardian, a
Blue Bird leader, a Horizon Club advisor and an
American Youth Hosteler, once leading a group of girls on a ten-day bicycle trip through New England. Comics historian Tom Spurgeon detailed how she broke through barriers at the once all-male
National Cartoonists Society in 1950: :Terry was early on a magazine cartoonist, and is said to have placed work in such high-profile outlets as
The Saturday Evening Post and
The New Yorker. Terry's work on
Teena displays the clarity and precision of magazine-style cartooning, which must have helped it stand out, particularly in its initial years when a more decorative style was still on display in several features.
Teena was a King Features strip, and was licensed briefly to comic books (at Standard) as well. Terry was a member of the Art Students League of New York, where she met her future husband Gregory d'Alessio, who preceded Terry in death. In 1949, d'Alessio submitted his wife's name for membership in the then all-male National Cartoonists Society, putting her on the ballot with magazine cartoonist
Barbara Shermund. She was admitted a year later after much debate, and immediately set about bringing more female cartoonists into the fold. She later became an award-winning animator and pioneering contributor to sports-stadium animations, and pursued a variety of personal interests until her death. Once she was a member of the NCS, she proposed
Gladys Parker and other women cartoonists for memberships. ==Animation==