IIRC,
He had also been an active duty Marine . . . I forget in what war.
And he had tatoos on his arms which was one reason he wore the sweaters—did NOT want to influence kids to have tattoos.
I think everyone who was ever around him asserted he was exactly the same in person as he was on the show.
What a compliment!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rogers
He didn’t serve, his adopted brother George however was one of the Tuskegee Airmen though...he taught Fred to fly per wikipedia above.
correction, make that his brother George was an instructor for the Tuskegee Airmen...
...and it was Captain Kangaroo, Bob Keeshan, that was a Marine