From the Chicago Tribune:
The author-radio host-actor-activist and Chicago symbol has died. "My epitaph? My epitaph will be 'Curiosity did not kill this cat,'" he once said.
....
"Studs Terkel was part of a great Chicago literary tradition that stretched from Theodore Dreiser to Richard Wright to Nelson Algren to Mike Royko," Mayor Richard M. Daley said Friday. "In his many books, Studs captured the eloquence of the common men and women whose hard work and strong values built the America we enjoy today. He was also an excellent interviewer, and his WFMT radio show was an important part of Chicago's cultural landscape for more than 40 years."
When Terkel's wife of 60 years, Ida, died in 1999, he said:
"It's hard. It's very hard," he said the day she died. "She was seven days older than me, and I would always joke that I married an older woman. That's the thing: Who's gonna laugh at my jokes? At those jokes I've told a million times? That's the thing ... ... Who's gonna be there to laugh?"
Studs and Ida are together again. Prayers and sympathy to his son, Dan and to all those who knew him and loved him and to all who admired him from afar, through his books, through his TV show, and through his radio show.
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As one who has lived in the Chicago metropolitan area my whole adult life, this loss feels so personal. It's hard to explain what an icon he is here. Thank you for posting about him.
ReplyDeleteHe was a mensch.
ReplyDeleteSadness and joy all rolled into one. Hey Studs, I'm still laughing at your joke.
ReplyDeleteBeing a legend in your own time is only marginally determined by age. Age helps, but this one was already a legend a long time ago.
Requiescat in pace (not that he would appreciate that very much).
I just heard Garrison Keillor's tribute on PHC. It was wonderful. He was such a wonderful person. I loved to hear him talk about everything. I have a tape of a Midnight Special that was always played on the Saturday closest to Christmas that had such wonderful music and people telling stories about the hard time Christmases in Appalachia, etc. It makes me cry every time I listen to it, but I listen every year.
ReplyDeleteYou're right Mimi, he was a mensch.
Scott, Studs in pace? I think not. I'm still laughing at his joke, too.
ReplyDeleteSusan, the Studs of the world don't come our way very often.
My bride and I met Studs at a bus stop on Clark Street not far from Wrigley Field one night. He was absolutely friendly and gracious, and we talked up a storm. We rode the bus together, and he got off a few stops ahead of us.
ReplyDeleteA truly decent man.
Bubs, what a nice story. Isn't that typical of the man Studs was?
ReplyDelete