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1928 births

Fred Rogers

Ch. 1 of 8
— CH. 1 · INTRODUCTION —

Contents

Fred Rogers

8 sections

  • Fred Rogers weighed 143 pounds for most of his adult life, and he treated the number as a private message. In a 1998 Esquire profile, he told the writer Tom Junod, "the number 143 means 'I love you.' It takes one letter to say 'I' and four letters to say 'love' and three letters to say 'you'."

    The man behind that arithmetic was born in 1928 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and became known professionally as Mister Rogers. He was a television personality, a Presbyterian minister, and an author. For 33 years, from 1968 to 2001, he created and hosted the preschool series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

    His path to that role was unlikely. He began as a shy, lonely child who spent hours with puppets. How did a boy bullied over his weight become the quiet voice that children trusted? Why would a man ordained as a minister build his career in front of a camera instead of a congregation? And what did one appearance before Congress have to do with the funding of public television?

  • Fred Rogers was born in 1928 at 705 Main Street in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. His father, James Hillis Rogers, was president of the McFeely Brick Company, one of the town's most prominent businesses, founded in 1900. His mother, Nancy, born a McFeely, knitted sweaters for soldiers from western Pennsylvania who were fighting in Europe. She also volunteered regularly at the Latrobe Hospital, having once dreamed of becoming a doctor. The boy took his name from her father, Fred Brooks McFeely, an entrepreneur.

    The family lived in a large three-story brick house at 737 Weldon Street. When Rogers was eleven, his parents adopted a daughter, his sister Elaine. Much of his childhood passed alone, in the company of puppets and his grandfather. He began playing the piano at the age of five.

    Classmates called him "Fat Freddy," and asthma often kept him at home. Rogers was shy, introverted, and overweight. Morgan Neville, director of the 2018 documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor?, described a "lonely childhood" and said, "I think he made friends with himself as much as he could. He had a ventriloquist dummy, he had stuffed animals, and he would create his own worlds in his childhood bedroom."

    Latrobe High School changed things. Rogers told NPR's Terry Gross in 1984, "It was tough for me at the beginning, and then I made a couple friends who found out that the core of me was okay. And one of them was... the head of the football team." He went on to serve as student council president, join the National Honor Society, and edit the school yearbook.

    In 1948, at age 20, Rogers registered for the draft in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and was classified 1-A, available for service. After an Armed Forces physical on the 12th of October 1950, his status changed to unqualified. He spent one year at Dartmouth College before transferring to Rollins College. There he graduated magna cum laude in 1951 with a Bachelor of Music. During that senior year, a television set in his parents' home pointed him toward an unexpected career.

  • A CNN interview captured why Rogers chose television over seminary in 1951. He said he went into television "because I hated it so." He wanted "some way of using this fabulous instrument to nurture those who would watch and listen."

    After graduation, he took a job at NBC in New York City. He served as floor director for Your Hit Parade, The Kate Smith Hour, and a children's show hosted by Gabby Hayes. He also worked as an assistant producer on The Voice of Firestone.

    In 1953, Rogers returned to Pittsburgh as a program developer at the public television station WQED. There he worked with Josie Carey on The Children's Corner, which Carey hosted. Rogers stayed off camera, building the puppets, characters, and music. Daniel the Striped Tiger was named for the station manager, Dorothy Daniel, who gave him a tiger puppet before the premiere. King Friday XIII, X the Owl, Henrietta, and Lady Elaine also came from this period. Queen Sara Saturday took the name of his wife. The show won a Sylvania Award in 1955 for best locally produced children's programming and reached a national audience on NBC. A young entertainer named Ernie Coombs worked on it as an assistant puppeteer.

    At the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Child Development, Rogers met the child psychologist Margaret McFarland. Their partnership lasted thirty years. His biographer, Maxwell King, called her his "key advisor and collaborator" and his "child-education guru." She consulted on most of the scripts and songs for Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

    Rogers studied at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary while the show was on the air. He graduated magna cum laude in 1962 with a Bachelor of Divinity. The Pittsburgh Presbytery of the United Presbyterian Church ordained him in 1963. He never led a congregation. His ministry was to children and their families through the screen, and he regularly appeared before church officials to maintain his ordination.

    In 1963, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto hired him to develop and host Misterogers, a 15-minute black-and-white program that ran until 1967. It was the first time Rogers appeared on camera. The network's head of children's programming, Fred Rainsberry, insisted on it. He told Rogers, "Fred, I've seen you talk with kids. Let's put you yourself on the air."

    Coombs followed Rogers to Toronto, and the two also made Butternut Square from 1964 to 1967. In 1967, Rogers acquired the rights to Misterogers. He returned to Pittsburgh with his wife, two young sons, and the sets he had developed. He had no job waiting there and was leaving a promising Canadian career. On his recommendation, Coombs stayed in Toronto and created Mr. Dressup, which ran until 1996.

  • Johnny Costa's piano opened every episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, playing the theme "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" in an arrangement inspired by a Beethoven sonata. The camera swept over a model neighborhood, closed in on a miniature house, then cut inside to the front door. Rogers walked in singing the theme. He swapped his jacket for a cardigan knitted by his mother, Nancy, and his dress shoes for sneakers, tossing one shoe from hand to hand.

    After introducing the day's theme, Rogers visited another location. Back home, he went to the window seat beside the trolley track and set the action in motion. The trolley rolled through a tunnel in the back wall into the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. Puppets and human characters acted out stories that unfolded across a week of episodes. When the trolley returned, Rogers spoke to viewers, fed his fish, and tidied any props he had used. Then he sang the closing song while changing back into his dress shoes and jacket.

    The trolley, the sneakers, and the castle had all been built for his Toronto show by CBC designers and producers. That show also supplied the slow pace and quiet manner. The format stayed virtually unchanged for the whole run.

    The Neighborhood reached the nation in 1968 and produced 895 episodes. It was videotaped at WQED and carried by National Educational Television, which later became PBS. The first season had 180 black-and-white episodes. Every later season was filmed in color, ran 65 episodes, and drew funding from PBS, the Sears-Roebuck Foundation, and other charities. By the time production stopped in December 2000, the average rating was about 0.7 percent of television households, or 680,000 homes, across 384 PBS stations. The peak came in 1985-86, at 2.1 percent, or 1.8 million homes. By 2016, it was the third-longest-running program in PBS history.

    Sesame Street premiered in 1969 with a different aim. Writer Kathy Merlock Jackson observed that Sesame Street stressed school-readiness skills, while Rogers's show attended to a child's developing psyche, feelings, and moral reasoning. The Neighborhood spent less on research. Rogers instead drew on the ideas of McFarland, Benjamin Spock, Erik Erikson, and T. Berry Brazelton. The Washington Post noted that he taught civility, tolerance, sharing, and self-worth "in a reassuring tone and leisurely cadence."

    He also took on hard subjects. Episodes dealt with the death of a family pet, sibling rivalry, a newborn joining a family, moving, enrolling in a new school, and divorce. On the 7th of June 1968, two days after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, he aired a special segment he had written in response.

    King called the work of assembling each episode "painstaking" and Rogers's contribution "astounding." Rogers wrote and edited every episode and hosted all of them. He played the piano and sang on most songs, wrote 200 songs and 13 operas, and created every puppet and human character. He voiced most of the significant puppets himself and approved every detail. King described those puppets as "complex, complicated, and utterly honest beings." In 1971, Rogers formed Family Communications, Inc., now Fred Rogers Productions, to make the show and related materials.

    In 1975, he stopped producing the Neighborhood to concentrate on adult programming, a decision that caught many colleagues "off guard." He kept consulting McFarland on child development. In 1978, he wrote, produced, and hosted Old Friends... New Friends, a 20-episode PBS interview series for adults. Guests included Hoagy Carmichael, Helen Hayes, Milton Berle, and the baseball star Willie Stargell. In 1979, after almost five years away, he resumed the Neighborhood. King called the new version "stronger and more sophisticated than ever."

    By the 1980s, the show was a cultural touchstone, and Eddie Murphy parodied it on Saturday Night Live. Rogers told David Letterman in 1982 that he believed such parodies came "with kindness in their hearts."

    Rogers retired from production at age 73. For many years he and his company had made only two or three weeks of new episodes annually, filling the schedule from a library of about 300 shows made since 1979. The final original episode aired on the 31st of August 2001.

  • In 1969, a Senate subcommittee on communications chaired by Democratic Senator John Pastore of Rhode Island heard from a man who was not yet nationally known. President Lyndon Johnson had proposed a $20 million bill to create PBS before leaving office. His successor, Richard Nixon, wanted to cut that to $10 million. Rogers was chosen to testify for his gift for persuasion and his emotional connection with an audience.

    The televised testimony brought Pastore to tears. King considered it one of the most powerful pieces of testimony ever offered before Congress, and public relations experts and academics have studied it. Congressional funding for PBS rose from $9 million to $22 million. In 1970, Nixon appointed Rogers chair of the White House Conference on Children and Youth.

    The clip has found new audiences online. Since 2012, it has gone viral at least twice. It first resurfaced after presidential candidate Mitt Romney suggested cutting PBS funding. It spread again in 2017, after President Donald Trump proposed defunding several arts programs, including PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts.

    In September 1987, Rogers flew to Moscow to appear as the first guest on the Soviet children's program Good Night, Little Ones!, hosted by Tatyana Vedeneyeva. It aired on the 7th of December, the same day as the Washington Summit between Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan. Vedeneyeva visited the Neighborhood set in November, and that visit aired in March 1988. In 1994, Rogers wrote, produced, and hosted Fred Rogers' Heroes, a PBS special profiling four people helping children and education. In 1996, he played a preacher on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, his first television role as an actor rather than himself.

    Rogers gave scores of interviews and disliked talk shows, yet he usually charmed the hosts with quick wit and ad-libbing. He also made more than 150 speeches and was among the country's most sought-after commencement speakers. His friend David Newell said Rogers would "agonize over a speech." King found him least guarded in these talks, which covered children, television, education, and his search for self-knowledge. In several of them, including his 1997 Lifetime Achievement Emmy acceptance and 1999 Television Academy Hall of Fame induction, he asked listeners to fall silent and think of someone who had shaped them. He made the same request in his final commencement speech, at Dartmouth College in 2002.

  • Between 4:30 and 5:30 each morning, Rogers woke to pray and read the Bible. Then he swam, usually at the Pittsburgh Athletic Association. He had learned as a child at his family's vacation home outside Latrobe, where they owned a pool, and on winter trips to Florida. King wrote that swimming and the piano were lifelong passions that made him feel capable and in charge of his destiny. Rogers neither smoked nor drank. By 1998, he took a daily nap, went to bed at 9:30 P.M., and slept eight uninterrupted hours.

    At Rollins College, Rogers met Sara Joanne Byrd, called Joanne, from Jacksonville, Florida. They married in 1952 and stayed married until his death in 2003. They had two sons, James and John. Joanne was an accomplished pianist with a Bachelor of Music from Rollins and a Master of Music from Florida State University. From 1976 to 2008, she performed publicly with her college classmate Jeannine Morrison.

    He became a pescetarian in 1970, after his father died. In the early 1980s, he went fully vegetarian, saying he "couldn't eat anything that had a mother." In the mid-1980s, he became a co-owner of Vegetarian Times, telling its readers, "I love tofu burgers and beets." Rogers was also red-green color-blind. He was a registered Republican, but Joanne said he voted independently and avoided talking politics so he could stay impartial.

    Rogers was a Presbyterian, and the core tenets of Christianity inspired many of the messages in his show. He rarely spoke of faith on air. "You don't need to speak overtly about religion in order to get a message across," he said. Writer Shea Tuttle reports that he called the space between viewer and television set "holy ground." He also studied Catholic mysticism, Judaism, Buddhism, and other traditions. King called him a television star with "a real spiritual life" who prized patience, reflection, and "silence in a noisy world."

    Despite his family's wealth, Rogers cared little about money and lived frugally, especially in later years. He answered every letter from young viewers by hand, a practice he began while hosting Misterogers in Canada. When the volume grew after the American launch, he hired the producer Hedda Sharapan to help. Even so, he read, edited, and signed each reply himself. King described this as "a pastoral duty of sorts."

  • By the summer of 2002, Rogers's chronic stomach pain had grown severe enough to send him to a doctor. Since retiring, he had stayed busy with his company, the study of religion and spirituality, travel, and public appearances. He was also helping Archabbot Douglas Nowicki, chancellor of Saint Vincent College, build a children's media center in Latrobe that would carry his name. In October 2002, doctors diagnosed stomach cancer.

    He postponed treatment so he could serve as Grand Marshal of the 2003 Rose Parade in January, alongside Art Linkletter and Bill Cosby. On the 6th of January he underwent stomach surgery. He died at his Pittsburgh home on the 27th of February 2003, aged 74, with Joanne beside him after 50 years of marriage. While comatose, he received the last rites of the Catholic Church from Nowicki.

    The next day, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette covered his death on its front page and devoted a full section to his impact. By noon, the paper reported, the internet was already full of tributes from parents, viewers, producers, and writers. Most major American newspapers ran his obituary on page one. WQED aired programs about him that evening, and its ratings were three times higher than usual. ABC's Nightline rerun a recent interview with Rogers and earned the highest ratings of the day, ahead of Late Show with David Letterman and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. On the 4th of March, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution honoring him, sponsored by Representative Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania.

    On the 1st of March, about 80 relatives, co-workers, and friends gathered for a private funeral in Unity Chapel, which his father had restored, at Unity Cemetery in Latrobe. The family planned it in great secrecy so the closest mourners could grieve privately. Reverend John McCall of Sixth Presbyterian Church in Squirrel Hill gave the homily. Reverend William Barker, who voiced Mr. Platypus on the show, read Rogers's favorite Bible passages. Rogers was interred in a mausoleum owned by his mother's family.

    On the 3rd of May 2003, 2,700 people attended a public memorial at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh. Violinist Itzhak Perlman and organist Alan Morrison performed, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma joined by video. Eric Carle, author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Marc Brown, creator of Arthur, were in the audience. Jeff Erlanger spoke too. At age 10, in 1981, he had appeared on the show to explain his electric wheelchair. He had also surprised Rogers at the 1999 Hall of Fame ceremony.

  • Angela Santomero, co-creator of Blue's Clues, studied developmental psychology and entered educational television because of Rogers. She and her fellow producers borrowed his methods, including grounding the show in child development research and having the host speak straight to the camera before moving into a make-believe world. In 2006, the Fred Rogers Company asked her to create a show carrying his legacy. Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, built on characters from the original series, premiered on PBS in 2012. Marc Brown called Rogers a terrific role model for using media to help kids and families. Josh Selig, creator of Wonder Pets, credits him for his own approach to structure, predictability, and music.

    Rogers also became a voice of comfort after disasters. NPR's Asia Simone Burns reports that his words spread on social media after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017, and the Parkland shooting in 2018. Robert Thompson of Syracuse University said Rogers guided American childhood through turbulent times, from the Vietnam War to the attacks of 9/11. Caitlin Gibson of The Washington Post called him "a timeless oracle" for parents.

    In 2018, Neville's documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? grossed over $22 million. It became the top-grossing biographical documentary ever. A 2019 drama, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, starred Tom Hanks as Rogers. The two are sixth cousins, descended from Johannes Meffert, born in 1732, who emigrated from Germany.

    The honors came from many directions. In 2002, President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest American civilian honor. More than 43 colleges and universities gave him honorary degrees. Asteroid 26858 Misterrogers, discovered by Eleanor Helin in 1993, carries his name. In 2018, the Postal Service issued a Forever stamp dedicated on the 23rd of March at WQED.

    In 1984, he donated one of his sweaters to the Smithsonian Institution. A traveling exhibit created in 1998 by Rogers and his company, including a sweater, sneakers, and original puppets, went to the Louisiana Children's Museum after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Pittsburgh displays an 11-foot bronze statue of him on the North Shore, and Latrobe has a statue of him on a bench in James H. Rogers Park. In 2021, Rollins College dedicated A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a bronze by Paul Day showing Rogers and Daniel S. Tiger speaking with children. The base carries lyrics from the show's theme song.

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Updated

Common questions

Who was Fred Rogers?

Fred Rogers (1928-2003), known professionally as Mister Rogers, was an American television personality, Presbyterian minister, and author. He created and hosted the preschool series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which ran from 1968 to 2001.

How many episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood did Fred Rogers make?

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood produced 895 episodes. The first season had 180 black-and-white episodes, and each later color season had 65.

What did Fred Rogers say at his 1969 Senate testimony?

The script records that Fred Rogers testified in 1969 before a Senate subcommittee chaired by Senator John Pastore, which brought Pastore to tears. Congressional funding for PBS then rose from $9 million to $22 million.

Why was Fred Rogers a Presbyterian minister?

Fred Rogers was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1963 by the Pittsburgh Presbytery of the United Presbyterian Church. His ministry was to children and families through television instead of leading a congregation.

How did Fred Rogers die and when?

Fred Rogers died of stomach cancer at his Pittsburgh home on the 27th of February 2003, aged 74. His wife, Joanne, was at his side.

What did the number 143 mean to Fred Rogers?

Fred Rogers weighed 143 pounds for most of his adult life and told writer Tom Junod that the number meant "I love you." It takes one letter for I, four for love, and three for you.

What awards did Fred Rogers receive?

Fred Rogers received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 1997 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002, awarded by President George W. Bush. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999 and received honorary degrees from more than 43 colleges and universities.

All sources

238 references cited across the entry

  1. 1Mister Rogers: 'Won't you be my neighbor?' fans can check out Fred Rogers TrailBeth J. Harpaz — July 18, 2018
  2. 2Early Life
  3. 3NewsIt's a Sad Day in This NeighborhoodElaine Woo — February 28, 2003
  4. 4King (2018), p. 19.
  5. 5NewsRemembering Fred Rogers: A Life Well-Lived: A look back at Fred Rogers' lifeJoyce DeFranceso — April 2003
  6. 6The relics of Mister Rogers: 7 emotional items from the new film Won't You Be My Neighbor?Anthony Breznican — June 9, 2018
  7. 7BookLegendary Locals of LatrobeJoseph A. Comm — Arcadia Publishing — 2015
  8. 8Gross (1984), event occurs at 4.27.
  9. 9Celebrating Mr. Rogers at the National Archives U.S. National Archives. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
  10. 10NewsFred M. Rogers Receives Degree From SeminaryMay 10, 1962
  11. 11Vol 1960–1965: Annual Catalogue of the Pittsburgh Theological SeminaryPittsburgh Theological Seminary — 1965
  12. 12NewsOn Sunday: Fred M. Rogers To Be OrdainedJune 8, 1963
  13. 13Mr. Rogers was a televangelist to toddlersDaniel Burke — November 23, 2019
  14. 14Fred Rogers: On his college yearsKaren Herman — Academy of Television Arts & Sciences — October 22, 2017
  15. 15News'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood' at 50: 5 Memorable MomentsSopan Deb — March 5, 2018
  16. 16NewsFred and me: An appreciationHenry Schuster — February 27, 2003
  17. 17King, p. 266.
  18. 18King, p. 265.
  19. 19NewsIn the Land of Make Believe, The Real Mister RogersPaul Hendrickson — November 18, 1982
  20. 20Gross (1984), event occurs at 6.38.
  21. 21NewsHighlights in the life and career of Fred RogersFebruary 27, 2003
  22. 22Tiech, p. 10.
  23. 23Fred RogersPBS.org — 2014
  24. 24Early Years in Television
  25. 25Tiech, p. 9.
  26. 26Sunday on the Children's Corner, RevisitedFebruary 15, 2018
  27. 27Sylvania AwardMike Schultz — uv201.com
  28. 28Fred Rogers Biography2018
  29. 29When Fred Met Margaret: Fred Rogers' MentorSally Ann Flecker — University of Pittsburgh — Winter 2014
  30. 30King, p. 126.
  31. 31BookProducers on Producing: The Making of Film and TelevisionIrv Broughton — McFarland & Company, Inc. — 1986
  32. 32King (2018), p. 145.
  33. 33The Fred Rogers We KnowSoraya Roberts — Penguin Random House — June 26, 2018
  34. 34BookRevisiting Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: Essays on Lessons about Self and CommunitySue Matheson — McFarland & Company, Publishers — 2016
  35. 35King, p. 150.
  36. 36NewsHow Mr. Rogers and Mr. Dressup's road trip from Pittsburgh to Toronto changed children's television foreverDon Gillmor — July 11, 2018
  37. 37Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and Beyond
  38. 38NewsFred Rogers Took a Stand Against Racial Inequality When He Invited a Black Character to Join Him in a PoolSara Kettler — May 24, 2019
  39. 39MagazineMister Rogers pic in development with 'Little Miss Sunshine' directorsLindsey Bahr — September 27, 2013
  40. 40NewsChildren's TV Host Fred Rogers Dies At 74February 27, 2003
  41. 41NewsMister Rogers Is Coming Back To Your Neighborhood, On A StampAsia Simone Burns — February 7, 2018
  42. 42King, p. 164.
  43. 43NewsChildren's TV Icon Fred Rogers Dies at 74Louie Estrada — February 28, 2003
  44. 45NewsFor Mister Rogers, a Final Day in the NeighborhoodDavid Montgomery — September 1, 2001
  45. 46BookRevisiting Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: Essays on Lessons about Self and CommunityKathy Merlock Jackson et al. — McFarland & Company, Inc. — 2016
  46. 47King, p. 158.
  47. 48King, p. 146.
  48. 49BookThe World of Mister Rogers' NeighborhoodMark J. P. Wolfe — Routledge Publishers — 2017
  49. 50NewsFrom the Archives: It's a Sad Day in This NeighborhoodElaine Woo — February 28, 2003
  50. 51The Importance of Sweaters and Sneakers in Mister Rogers' NeighborhoodChristine Jackson — PBS — March 20, 2017
  51. 52Wolfe, p. 11.
  52. 53King, p. 145.
  53. 54BookRevisiting Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: Essays on Lessons about Self and CommunityKathy Merlock Jackson — McFarland & Company, Publishers — February 17, 2016
  54. 55King, p. 134.
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  60. 61NewsSiefken Heads Up Fred Rogers Company, Keeping Mister Rogers' Message Relevant For Next GenerationRobin Seaton Jefferson — March 23, 2017
  61. 62King, pp. 230–231.
  62. 63King, p. 231.
  63. 64King, p. 240.
  64. 65King, p. 243.
  65. 66King, p. 338.
  66. 67NewsMr. Rogers offers timeless defense of PBS funding…in 1969Steve Frank — September 6, 2013
  67. 68King, pp. 170–171.
  68. 69King, p. 176.
  69. 70King, p. 172.
  70. 71King, p. 175.
  71. 72NewsFred Rogers Moves into a New Neighborhood—and So Does His Rebellious SonCable Neuhaus — May 15, 1978
  72. 73King, p. 230.
  73. 74King, p. 233.
  74. 75NewsBeautiful Day For Mr. Rogers And Soviet CounterpartDeborah Mesce — November 20, 1987
  75. 76NewsNeighborhood HeroEileen Ogintz — March 6, 1988
  76. 77News'Neighborhood' DetentePatricia Brennan — March 6, 1988
  77. 78King, p. 232.
  78. 79News'Mr. Rogers' Heroes' Looks at Who's Helping America's ChildrenScott Williams — September 2, 1994
  79. 80King, p. 326.
  80. 81King (2018), p. 308.
  81. 82King (2018), p. 326.
  82. 83About Fred RogersThe Fred Rogers Company
  83. 84NewsFred Rogers' widow reveals the way he proposed marriage—and it's so sweetRandee Dawn — June 12, 2018
  84. 85King (2018), p. 54.
  85. 86Children's Museum of Pittsburgh to honor Joanne Rogers with its 2016 Great Friend of Children AwardBill Schlageter — Children's Museum of Pittsburgh — February 3, 2016
  86. 87NewsMusic plays key role in Mrs. Rogers' relationship with husband FredRob Owen — April 9, 2002
  87. 88King (2018), p. 208.
  88. 89NewsJoanne Rogers, Widow Of Fred Rogers, Dies At Age 92January 14, 2021
  89. 90King (2018), p. 87.
  90. 91VideoMy Interview with FredWQED — October 19, 1987
  91. 92King (2018), p. 9.
  92. 93MagazineFred Rogers: America's Favorite NeighborPaul Obis — November 1983
  93. 94NewsHow befriending Mister Rogers' widow allowed me to learn the true meaning of his legacyAmy Kaufman — November 26, 2019
  94. 95King (2018), p. 313.
  95. 96King (2018), p. 10.
  96. 97King (2018), p. 336.
  97. 98King (2018), p. 328.
  98. 99NewsMister Rogers, TV's Friend For Children, Is Dead at 74Daniel Lewis — February 28, 2003
  99. 100MagazineCan You Say…Hero?Tom Junod — November 1998
  100. 101King (2018), p. 318.
  101. 102King (2018), p. 317.
  102. 103Tom Hanks just found out he's related to Mister RogersMaddie Capron et al. — November 19, 2019
  103. 104Fred Rogers celebrated as 'bisexual icon' after his comments on sexual attraction resurfaceMartha Ross — 2019-03-07
  104. 105'Wasn't He Gay?': A Revealing Question About Mister RogersMichael Long — 2014-10-22
  105. 106Mr. Rogers Was Apparently Queer, Says 2015 BookMikelle Street — 2019-03-06
  106. 107King, pp. 338, 344.
  107. 108King, pp. 343–344.
  108. 109King, p. 344.
  109. 110NewsMy friend, Mr. RogersChristopher De Vinck — February 24, 2013
  110. 111NewsFred Rogers dies at 74Rob Owen et al. — February 28, 2003
  111. 112King, p. 348.
  112. 113Mister Rogers's Surprising Ties with CatholicismMelissa Guerrero — January 30, 2019
  113. 114NewsLasting connection his legacy: Children felt Mister Rogers was talking just to themSally Kalson — February 28, 2003
  114. 115NewsRogers' death gets front-page headlinesMilan Simonich — March 2, 2003
  115. 116NewsIt's a beautiful day in the U.S. House as Congress honors Fred RogersAnn McFeatters — March 5, 2003
  116. 117NewsFriends, relatives mourn death of Mr. RogersAnn Rodgers-Melnick — March 2, 2003
  117. 118NewsPittsburgh bids farewell to Fred Rogers with moving public tributeBarbara Vancheri et al. — May 4, 2003
  118. 119NewsMemorable guest: It's you, Fred, that I likeBarbara Vancheri — May 4, 2003
  119. 120NewsAppreciation: Mister Rogers will always be part of our neighborhoodRob Owen — May 3, 2003
  120. 121MagazineThe Backstory: The Moving Mr. Rogers Clip Everyone Is Talking AboutLily Rothman — April 16, 2013
  121. 122King, p. 357.
  122. 123NewsCreator Marc Brown on Mr. Rogers, Memes, and 20 Years of ArthurMatt Juul — October 10, 2016
  123. 124King, pp. 353–354.
  124. 125King, p. 353.
  125. 126NewsMister Rogers Changed My LifeAngela C. Santomero — September 21, 2012
  126. 127NewsA 'very Fred-ish' birthday for 'Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood'Rob Owen — September 2, 2013
  127. 129King, p. 267.
  128. 130Fred Rogers re-emerges as champion for PBSSharon Eberson — March 17, 2019
  129. 131Watch Mister Rogers Defend PBS In Front of the U.S. SenateAisha Harris — October 5, 2012
  130. 132The Best Argument For Saving Public Media Was Made By Mr. Rogers In 1969Maxwell Strachan — March 16, 2017
  131. 133Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Approves 21 New State Historical MarkersPR Newswire Association LLC — March 4, 2014
  132. 134State Marker in Latrobe to Honor Mr. RogersFred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children's Media — March 5, 2014
  133. 135Pennsylvania Historical Marker Search
  134. 136News'Won't You Be My Neighbor', 'RBG' Nab Producers Guild Documentary NominationsDave McNary — November 20, 2019
  135. 137NewsHow Mister Rogers became a timeless oracle of parenting wisdomCaitlin Gibson — August 12, 2019
  136. 138NewsMister Rogers Still Lives In Your NeighborhoodAsia Simone Burns — February 18, 2018
  137. 139The Fred Rogers Collection – '51 '74H (1928–2003)Rollins College
  138. 140Public Media Awards: Ralph Lowell AwardCorporation for Public Broadcasting — July 20, 2015
  139. 141NewsWhat's Happening: Thanksgiving Ball, Sewickley EventNovember 24, 1977
  140. 142NewsOn the Air: CBS Drops 10 Shows; 'Two Men' to DebutWin Fanning — May 2, 1977
  141. 143NewsAmong the Churches: Address By General Motors Minister To Highlight Salvation Army WeekMay 7, 1977
  142. 144Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Program Notes: Honorary Degrees Awarded to Fred RogersDavid Newell et al. — Family Communications, Inc.
  143. 145NewsMister Rogers Gets Pitt Fraternity HonorJanuary 29, 1978
  144. 146NewsOn the Air: 'Supertrain' Has Super SetWin Fanning — December 29, 1978
  145. 147NewsAward-winning Rogers: kids' special-izerDonna Darovich — February 13, 1981
  146. 148NewsValley Viewing – Profiles in Excellence '82June 16, 1982
  147. 149Distinguished Alumni
  148. 150Famous SinfoniansNu Kappa Fraternity
  149. 151Mr. Fred Rogers Commencement Speech - Immaculata College 1988Immaculata University — May 15, 1988
  150. 152Commencement HighlightsImmaculata News — November 24, 2019
  151. 153NewsVector awardsDecember 7, 1989
  152. 154NewsPA Society To Honor Mr. RogersOctober 31, 1990
  153. 155NewsCan you say…captain?October 7, 1991
  154. 156Mister Rogers' Hockey CardBarry Sal — Puck Junk — March 21, 2016
  155. 157From Cardigan to Graduate's Gown Mister Fred Rogers Speaks at Moravian BaccalaureateBryan Hay — May 31, 1992
  156. 158Personal Award: Fred RogersPeabody Awards
  157. 159News2018 Peabody Awards honor The Fred Rogers CompanyMaria Sciullo — April 19, 2018
  158. 160NewsMr. Rogers, Heimlich among grad speakersMay 15, 1994
  159. 161NewsRemembering Mr. Rogers' Rochester visit, and an important messageJames H. Jr. Evans — November 27, 2019
  160. 162National Patrons & PatronessesDelta Omicron
  161. 163JournalMr. Rogers Golden AnniversarySpring 2018
  162. 164NewsFred Rogers To Be Given Award In PittsburghFebruary 11, 1995
  163. 165Fred Rogers Acceptance Speech - 1997The Emmy Awards — May 21, 1997
  164. 166TCA Awards
  165. 167'Bastard Out of Carolina' also tops TV award-winnersTim Goodman — Hearst Communications — July 21, 1997
  166. 168Fred Mister RogersHollywood Chamber of Commerce — October 25, 2019
  167. 169NewsObituary: Jeffrey Erlanger / Quadriplegic who endeared himself to Mister RogersRob Owen — June 14, 2017
  168. 170NewsRidge honors 'Mister Rogers' with awardJune 9, 1999
  169. 171NewsMister Rogers: Real Drama Of Life Not On Center StageMandi L. Moranelli — May 15, 2000
  170. 172NewsThe Buzz – RecognitionFebruary 24, 2001
  171. 173NewsMrs. Bush, Fred Rogers service award winnersFebruary 24, 2002
  172. 174Presidential Medal of Freedom RecipientsUnited States Senate
  173. 175NewsFred Rogers gets Presidential Medal of FreedomAnn McFeatters — July 10, 2002
  174. 176Press releasePNC Honors Six Achievers Who Enrich The WorldPNC Media Room
  175. 177(26858) Misterrogers = 1952 SU = 1993 FR = 2000 EK107International Astronomical Union
  176. 178NewsAsteroid is named after Mister RogersMay 3, 2003
  177. 179Television Hall of Fame: Actors
  178. 180Television Hall of Fame: Productions
  179. 181NewsWear a sweater, honor Mr. RogersFebruary 27, 2008
  180. 182NewsSweater day to honor Mister RogersAdrian McCoy — February 27, 2008
  181. 183MagazineMinor league team honors Mr. Rogers with cardigan uniformsBrendan Maloy — June 11, 2015
  182. 184Mister Rogers Forever Stamp dedicated todayUnited States Postal Service — March 23, 2018
  183. 185NewsA Mister Rogers Postage Stamp, and a Legacy That's Anything but Make-BelieveChristine Hauser — February 13, 2018
  184. 186Welcome Back to the Neighborhood, Mister Rogers
  185. 187Celebrating Mister RogersSeptember 21, 2018
  186. 188NewsToday's Google Doodle is a heartwarming tribute to Mr. RogersAlaa Elassar et al. — September 21, 2018
  187. 189Here are the First Honors Announcements for 2019October 25, 2018
  188. 190NewsGrammys 2021: Complete list of winners and nomineesJordan Frieman — March 14, 2021
  189. 191Mister Rogers' SweaterSmithsonian National Museum of American History
  190. 192NewsMister Rogers to open a New Orleans neighborhoodMark Lorando — June 19, 2017
  191. 193NewsKids explore exhibit featuring Mister RogersAugust 12, 2018
  192. 194NewsIt's Still a Beautiful Day in His NeighborhoodSean D. Hamill — March 16, 2010
  193. 195NewsNew Mister Rogers 50th anniversary display opens March 20 at Heinz History CenterShirley McMarlin — March 19, 2018
  194. 196Heinz History Center
  195. 197Visit the Exhibit
  196. 198NewsVisual LegacyDecember 18, 2014
  197. 199NewsScience Center celebrates Mister RogersJennifer C. Yates — March 19, 2005
  198. 200NewsIt's a beautiful day in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood: the town of Latrobe, Pa.Amy Bertrand — 2019-12-10
  199. 201NewsCrafting an IconRob Humphreys — Rollins College — 2021-05-28
  200. 202NewsThiel College remembers Mister RogersDebra Erdley — March 23, 2018
  201. 203Academic Hood Quilt2018
  202. 204NewsVersatile Reardon Returns To MusicalsJuly 24, 1977
  203. 205Four to receive recognition at Drury weekend ceremoniesSpringfield News-Leader — May 8, 1986
  204. 206Mr. Rogers in the neighborhoodJacksonville Journal Courier — May 19, 1986
  205. 207NewsFather Jenco, Mister Rogers Among Graduation SpeakersDagmar Obereigner — May 9, 1987
  206. 208NewsDr. RogersPG Publishing Co. — June 1, 1987
  207. 209Eighty-Third Annual Baccalaureate/CommencementFrederick D. Hill Archives — May 21, 1988
  208. 210Honorary Degree Recipients—1990sUniversity of Connecticut — August 29, 2016
  209. 211NewsBU YesterdayBoston University Office of University Relations — September 14, 2001
  210. 212News'It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood' as 2,900 received degreesMary Ann Slater — Indiana Printing and Publishing Company — May 18, 1992
  211. 213NewsWhat celebrities have honorary degrees from Lehigh Valley colleges?Paul Muschick — May 7, 2018
  212. 214Mr. Rogers Brings Message to GoucherMary Maushard — May 15, 1993
  213. 215Fred Rogers to Deliver Pitt's 1993 Commencement AddressUniversity of Pittsburgh — April 9, 1993
  214. 216NewsW.V. University to Honor a Neighbor: Mr. RogersApril 6, 1995
  215. 2171996 Spring CommencementNorth Carolina State University — May 11, 1996
  216. 218Pa. Physician General, nearly 800 EU students receive degreesEdinboro University
  217. 219NewsCommencement; Fordham Class Hears Magician and PeacemakerMay 23, 1999
  218. 220Commencement Speakers, Charges and Honorary DegreesAugust 11, 2010
  219. 221NewsMister Rogers of PBS Fame Gives Old Dominion Graduates Advice for LifeOld Dominion University — July 3, 2014
  220. 222Honorary Degrees:Fred RogersMarquette University — 2001
  221. 223Middlebury to Award Honorary Degrees to Rogers and Six OthersMiddlebury News — April 11, 2001
  222. 224NewsSeton Hall Will Have Tribute to RogersApril 17, 2003
  223. 225NewsJoanne Rogers accepts husband's 41st honorary degreeJune 15, 2003
  224. 226BookAir Wars: The Fight to Reclaim Public BroadcastingJerold M. Starr — Temple University Press — 2001
  225. 227BookMister Rogers: A Biography of the Wonderful Life of Fred RogersJennifer Warner — BookCaps Study Guides — August 8, 2013
  226. 228Why not punch yourself in the gut with this picture of Elmo looking sadly at Mr. Rogers' old sweater?William Hughes — June 14, 2019
  227. 229BookMister Rogers' Neighborhood: A Visual HistoryFred Rogers Productions — Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale — October 29, 2019
  228. 230BookEncyclopedia of TelevisionSuzanne Williams-Rautiolla — Routledge — 2014
  229. 231NewsMister Rogers Pays a Visit to 'Dr. Quinn'February 2, 1996
  230. 232ArthurTV Guide
  231. 233In honor of Mister Rogers' 51st anniversary, here's one of our favorite memories—when he visited our neighborhood on #WheelOfFortune!September 21, 2018
  232. 234NewsThis Week's PicksDecember 29, 2002
  233. 235BookHorne's: The Best Place to Shop After AllLetitia Stuart Savage — Arcadia Publishing — November 18, 2019
  234. 236NewsMisterogers' neighborhood of make-believe is on recordsJune 13, 1964
  235. 237BookCurrent Biography YearbookH. W. Wilson Company — 1972
  236. 238BookBiography Today Performing Artists: Profiles of People of Interest to Young ReadersOmnigraphics Incorporated — February 1, 2004
  237. 239MagazineAlmost 30, 'Neighborhood' Is Still Central To Kids' TV; Youngheart Eyes MainstreamMoira McCormick — January 31, 1998
  238. 240Mister Rogers — It's Such A Good Feeling: The Best Of Mister RogersOmnivore Recordings — October 4, 2019

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