(Now, I wonder---could you imagine making a TV special out of Safire's language columns? If anyone could actually up and do it it might actually be funny as well as provocative . . .)
Rooney actually went into radio first, he worked among others for Arthur Godfrey, before moving with Godfrey to television. He also did work for The Garry Moore Show.
What I didn't know until recently: Andy Rooney was one of the writers for an early 1960s documentary series called The Twentieth Century, hosted by Walter Cronkite. My parents used to have that on during Sunday dinner, right after The General Electric College Bowl . . .
Rooney was a widower when he died. His wife died of heart failure in 2004; they were married 62 years. I stumbled upon a newspaper column of his in which he noted he didn't mention her in columns as often as he used to do "because it hurts too much to write it."
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