Remembering Owens, Gore & Simon
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February 2015 has been an awful month for deaths. Here are three famous and successful individuals we lost:
Gary Owens, 80, died Thursday, February 12, 2015 : famous announcer on NBC's Rowan & Martin's Laugh In.
Always impeccably dressed and groomed with that deep announcer voice, Owens would speak into a microphone on a stand with one hand cuffed behind one ear and say something totally silly and funny without cracking a laugh.
Owens also continued to do voice work for cartoons and other special. Was the cartoon voice for Space Ghost and Batman.
Owens died of complications from diabetes.
Lesley Gore, 68, died Monday, February 16, 2015: 1960's pop singer with a string of hits on Top 40 radio from 1963-1967.
Discovered by producer Quincy Jones and recorded on the Mercury Records label.
Appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS. Had 11 hits that charted on Billboard but her first song, "It's My Party" in 1963 was her only #1 hit.
Appeared in the movies Girls On The Beach, Ski Party (featuring the song "Sunshine, Lollipops And Rainbows") and The T.A.M.I. Show. Also starred as Pussycat, the assistant to Catwoman, on ABC's Batman.
Gore died from lung cancer.
Bob Simon, 73, died Wednesday, February 11, 2015: prolific CBS News correspondent. Bob passed away in a car accident in New York City.
Probably the best correspondent at CBS News and definitely the best foreign correspondent since the early days of CBS News when it was heard only over the CBS Radio Network.
Simon started at CBS News in 1967 during the Paley/Stanton days with some help from CBS News U.N. Correspondent Richard C. Hottelet. His foreign reporting took to the Vietnam War, the Middle East, Central America, and many other places around the globe.
All told Simon won numerous awards for his reporting and recently was a mainstay on CBS's 60 Minutes. He also filed numerous reports that aired on the CBS Evening News during the Cronkite and Rather years.
Very few people in news media today can say they have or had a 47 year career at one place but Bob Simon could. This Sunday, February 22, at 6pm, CBS News will present "60 Minutes Presents: Remembering Bob Simon", 90-minute special devoted to Simon and his lifelong work at CBS.
Thank you Gary, Lesley, and Bob for your contributions to making our lives better. See you next time.
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