Sad News

[abka]

Mr. Rogers passed away!

"We are very sorry to deliver the sad news that Fred Rogers
died on February 27, 2003 after a brief battle with stomach
cancer. We are grateful for the many people, young and old,
who have cared about his work over the years and who
continue to appreciate Mister Rogers' Neighborhood on PBS.
We hope that you'll join us in celebrating his life by
reflecting on his messages and taking them into your
everyday lives."

(from CNN.com passed on to me by Denis)

I know some of you also heard him speak at graduation last year. Any thoughts?

Comments

[grumph.livejournal.com]

:(

Very very sad.

[nonemorecomic.livejournal.com]

My mother had met Mr. Rogers. She said he was an extremely gentle and intelligent man. He knew quite a bit about music, and a curious thing was that since he had done the show for so long, he tended to speak slowly and pronounce each word distinctly. But he used big words for my mother.

His was probably my favorite show as a kid. Partly because of Trolley, and partly because of the Jazz that always played at the end of each show. Evidently Mr. Rogers had demanded that they not dumb the music down for their theme song. He hired a talented Jazz pianist to play the intro and outro, and when he asked what he should play, Mr. Rogers said, "Anything you like. The kids can handle it." So every show had a completely different, improvised piece of jazz at the beginning and ending. I liked that a lot.

I'm sad to know he's gone. But he's not really gone. I remember him, after all.

[mrsjadephoenix.livejournal.com]

I think it's incredible how much something like this can hit you. Most of us have never met Mr. Rogers or even seen him speak anywhere except on our TV screens. Most of us consciously stopped watching his show when we were pretty young, even though he kept the show going until 2001. And yet a lot of us feel very emotionally affected by his passing. I knew he was getting on in years, and I haven't really given him a thought in the past 15 years except when he spoke at commencement last year, but I guess I just always thought he would be there, and now he's gone. It doesn't feel right.

It just goes to show how much difference a little kindness can make, I guess.