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I am feeling very, very old right now.
She will be missed.
I didn't get to meet her, but did have a close encounter one time. When we still lived in upstate NY, Ms. Moore and her husband bought a estate in the area. One day as Spring and gardening season approaches, we went to get supplies at a local nursery. As we were heading from the car someone passed by and informed us "Mary Tyler Moore is here!" the kids could tell something was going on, but didn't know what. SWMBO told them "There's a lady here who your daddy used to be in love with". To which I replied, not too quietly, "Name me one American teenage boy who wasn't in love with Mary Tyler Moore in the 70's", and turned around. Guess who was just walking by with the biggest smile, while I must have been about 800 shades of red.
One of the best comedic actresses of all time, underrated because she was always surrounded with great talent.
First the cast of the Dick Van Dyke Show (Dick, Morey Amsterdam, Rose Marie, future sit-com director Jerry Paris and of course Carl Reiner), and the MTM Show ( Ted Knight, Ed Asner, Gavin MacLeod, Valerie Harper, Betty White and Cloris Leachman) which begat two network comedy spin-offs, and a dramatic show as well. Yet Mary was able to do more than hold her own in the Van Dyke Show ("Lolak" from the planet Twilo and "My Blonde Haired Brunette" being two outstanding examples).
Even her short-lived variety show featured two young newcomers,David Letterman and Michael Keaton.
We saw here in Manhattan many times over the years, the last time was kind of sad, as she was clearly losing her battle with diabetes and had become infirm and apparently partially blind
In March 1977, I proposed to my future wife in a car in a parking area, because Rob proposed to Laura in a jeep. Her reactions to Rob's proposal and to his travails getting to the wedding are comedy gems.
R.I.P Mary, and thank you.
(Unbeknownst to us, at the time of my proposal, it was the start of the killing spree that became known as the "Summer of Sam", where David Berkowitz was running around shooting couples in parked cars. He had already shot four couples and one single woman, but the police had not yet put together the notion of a serial killer. Three of the incidents were in Queens neighborhoods where we were out to dinner or movies, and his sister lived in the same garden apartment complex as I did.)
Richard Germiller, post: 410819, member: 499 wrote:
To which I replied, not too quietly, "Name me one American teenage boy who wasn't in love with Mary Tyler Moore in the 70's", and turned around. Guess who was just walking by with the biggest smile, while I must have been about 800 shades of red.
Teenage age boys from the Sixties too watching Dick Van Dyke show in B/W.
Classy lady f'sure.
If I remember...originally she was a dancer that gave her that figure and move gracefully.
Certainly a loss for the world.
However, in our newspaper someone else got a bigger headline. Dr. Harris died at age 89. He was the first black physician in town, who faced housing discrimination and other obstacles, but went on to be chief of staff at a hospital, county medical examiner, member of the state university board of regents, and involved in countless community activities while raising several successful children. I never heard a bad word about him, and our community has lost someone who worked tirelessly for its benefit.