Fred Rogers

Big Bird and Mr. Rogers (muppetcentral.com)

Fred Rogers was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania a town about 40 miles from Pittsburgh. During the early part of his years he spent a majority of his time with his grandfather Fred McFeely. He loved singing along while his mother played piano. Eventually, he began to play the piano as well. He soon attended Dartmouth University, but soon left the university to attend Rollins College. He later graduated with his Bachelor of Art degree in music composition. While attending Rollins College, he met his soon to be wife Sara Byrd. They were officially married on June 9, 1952 and had two children James and John. Fred later completed his schooling at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and became a minister.

In 1954, Fred began doing some puppeteer work at a public Pittsburgh television station. He worked there for a short eight years. Also, while on his lunch breaks he would study theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. However, in 1963 he moved to Toronto, Canada while under contract with the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) and was told to create a short children's show. The show was an instant success, but sadly only lasted a mere three seasons. His biggest success came in 1968 when Mister Rogers' Neighborhood came along. The last new shows were taped in December of 2000 and aired August 2001. It even has the title of being the longest running program on PBS running an astonishing 895 episodes. The show peaked in 1985 where eight percent of households were tuning in.

Tragedy truck on February 23, 2003. Fred Rogers passed away due to stomach cancer and the whole community was hurt. Over 2,700 people attended his funeral and his death was so big the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette posted their new issue the next day with the whole front page about Roger's death. Rogers even has his own bronze statue that is an estimated $3 million dollars.

Mister Rogers was a kind and gentle man who could bring laughter and joy into anyone's life. He never smoked or drank and once had his car stolen. It was returned within 48 hours with a note that stated, "If we had known it was yours we never would have stolen it." This incident just shows how respected and well liked he was around the world and community he lived in.