Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Cleaning out the inbox: Passings

     Time for a long-overdue post of tributes to the recently passed and even though this doesn't eliminate the backlog, it is a good start...

The Argentine middleweight contender of the 1980s lost only three times after two losses early in his career with all three in world title attempts against Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, and Michael Nunn.
The rugged brawler was always an action fighter with his fights filled with slugging outbursts with plenty of back and forth exchanges.
Roldan badly hurt Thomas Hearns twice before Hearns knocked Roldan out in the fourth round and is the only fighter to officially knock down Marvin Hagler, although it was more of a cuff and push down than a knockdown.
Roldan earned his title shot against Hearns with a ninth-round knockout win over James "The Heat" Kinchen and his first chance against Hagler was secured after a highlight reel sixth-round knockout over Frank "The Animal" Fletcher in a title eliminator on the undercard of Hagler's title defense against Roberto Duran.

Goodbye to Tracy Smothers at the age of 58.
Smothers best years were with Smoky Mountain Wrestling as their top "babyface", but also team with Steve Armstrong in WCW as the "Southern Boys/Young Pistols", the latter name coming after management wanted the product to seem less southern, which would have worked splendidly in today's times, but at that time it seemed silly to change their gimmick and hometown considered Smothers and Armstrong were well-known in the south as local products.
Smothers also became part of the comedy act in the original ECW with the FBI (Full Blooded Italians) in which Smothers was announced as wrestling out of "Knoxville, Italy" complete with dancing and behavior right out of a really bad Mafia film.

Goodbye to Tom Kennedy at the age of 93.
Kennedy, over three decades (the 60s, 70s, and 80s), hosted several different game shows with the most notable being "Name That Tune" for seven years from 1974-1981.
Kennedy also was the replacement for Allen Ludden after his passing as the host of "Password Plus" for the final three seasons of that game show and was the nighttime host of "The Price is Right" in 1985 and 1986.
Kennedy also was an actor when time permitted around his game show duties with guest appearances on several shows in the seventies.

Goodbye to Tony Lewis at the age of 62.
Joe Plum sends word of the loss of Lewis, who was the lead singer of The Outfield, who released a multi-platinum album in 1985 in "Play Deep".
The album gave the group three top twenty hits including "Your Love" and "Say it isn't so", and was the high point of the band and Lewis's career, although the next two albums did have a few notable successes.
Lewis released a few solo albums without a hit but toured with the band for years inside the U.K where they were never as successful as they had been in the United States.

Goodbye to Leanza Cornett at the age of 49.
Cornett was the 1993 Miss America and a correspondent for a time for "Entertainment Tonight" along with several guest appearances in various television shows.
Cornett was remembered most by me for her long-time work in hosting dog shows for Animal Planet and USA Network.

And finally, Goodbye to Jack Murray.
Who was Jack Murray?
Jack Murray was a man that worked at the Williamsport Post Office when I worked there and ranks with the funniest men that I've ever met.
Jack also owned a service station in Williamsport and I used to play video games at times in the game room there when I was in junior high.
Jack was part of Williamsport and I cannot imagine Williamsport without him.

My favorite Jack Murray story is one that wouldn't mean much to anyone else, but it always kills me.
Rachel was a toddler when I worked at USPS and she was toddling around the office holding a stuffed Elmo.
Jack asked her "What's this fellow's name" and Rachel answered.
Jack's response was "Well, nice to meet you, Elmer" and Rachel laughed and laughed and said, "It's ElmO"!
Jack winked at me and said to her "I thought you said, Elmer!".
I've never been able to see Elmo since without thinking of Jack Murray.
He was quite a guy...

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