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On This First November Day On this first November day, the autumn quiet and clouds of dawn gave way to afternoon's blue skies and a warm, golden sun as if to say that Texas was not yet ready to surrender to the first windy chills and grays of early winter. On this first November day, three brief and final journeys in Texas were taken. In San Antonio, B. Bailey Brown was laid to rest after travels from Texas to California and back that took him 57 years to make.
In Dallas, just 40 years young, a journalist, friend of journalists and radio, Al Brumley, could fight the brain tumor no more and left us for a better place that was promised to him by his maker. (click here to view Russ Martin's photo tribute to Al)
And in Fort Worth, we recalled someone so warm and friendly, and funny whose life was cut short by cancer. Because I could not be in all three cities this first November day, I gathered with others close to my home in a chapel full of friends and relatives in Fort Worth to hear them express memories, tell stories and honor Rod Roddy, then carry him to his final resting place.
Some friends and acquaintances are too busy with their own lives to go to funerals and memorial services when someone dies, or to make the effort to travel to honor the achievements of friends and associates while they are living. Some are restrained by distance and travel times. Many shy away because they don't want to face the certainty of their own mortality. Others because they just "don't have the time." But those who did take and make the time to travel the miles to honor three men's passing did so, no doubt, because these three men had taken the time to touch their own lives in small or significant ways. Some traveled from California and New York while others, like me, made the journey of only a few miles and minutes. To listen to those who rose to speak of the lives of these three men was to learn more about their lives, the people they loved, and to get to know and be able to comfort those they left behind. The Greenwood Chapel echoed with memories of those who Rod knew on a first name basis -- Jhani, Joey and John, Bart and Richard, Susan and Lawrence. On this first November day, tears too strong to hold back eased their way out, but were bravely rubbed from quivering cheeks. It was more than the sounds of sobbing and tears that traveled down cheeks that filled the chapels in these three Texas cities though. Between the hours of 2 and 4 in the sunny afternoon on this first November day, there was a certain joy in the celebrations of the three lives within this Texas triangle of cities. Each of us in our own ways, in three different cities, honored and remembered these three men whose special gifts of humor and love of life touched us all. The deaths of these three men brought friends and family together again -- or for the first time -- and sent us all on new journeys born and begun from within these sacred gathering places.
After the services were over, some of us gathered around the dinner table at III Forks in far north Dallas, a restaurant that Rod would surely have awarded 5 stars. There were Joey Reynolds, Rob Milford and young, brave Lawrence, Rod's friend and caregiver during his last two years of living, and those who worked with him daily on "The Price is Right." We raised our glasses in a toast to Rod and talked about what was and what might have been had the killing cancer not cut him down and carried him away. Rod Roddy, Al Brumley and B. Bailey Brown will live long in the memories of those who knew and loved them. We'll go on remembering and telling others who'll listen about a moment or two when we were moved by something they said and did with us or for us. Now, it is the second November day. We've gone our own ways and traveled our separate journeys back home. Each of us did leave a little bit of ourselves with those who left us behind. But, none of us can say that it wasn't worth the journey and time taken to pay tribute to three great and gracious men in Texas on that first November day. I will, someday, visit the grave sites of Al Brumley and B. Bailey Brown to say a late goodbye in person. And I know that I'll take the time and minutes to travel and say a few words to Rod Roddy again. I last spoke with Rod when he called to say he regretted not being able to travel to Texas in October 2002 to accept the honor of being inducted in to the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. A year before, in Los Angeles, I'd joined a friend, Brad Wilson, and Rod for coffee and conversation at Aroma Coffee and Tea Company on Tujunga Avenue. He talked about The Price is Right and Fort Worth's Arlington Heights -- where he grew up -- and his journeys to Thailand to shop for those loud sports coats that he wore on the show. He said that he longed to come to Texas soon to see how the old neighborhood had changed. But time and circumstances prevented him from doing so. Rod's resting place is nestled in a friendly forest of tall trees and among dozens of chattering squirrels who run wild and free among the gravestones and grass, and among songbirds who sing the cheerful songs of life in Greenwood Memorial Park. Many of my other friends rest there, close by, as well. But none were like Rod, who made me laugh and chuckle so. I'll remember best his wide expressive smile and the sound of his "Hiya, hiya, hiya" that warmed up the audiences of radio listeners in Texas long before California called him to "come on down" to Hollywood. November 2, 2003 Related stories and links ... Friends and fans are welcome to attend the funeral service for Rod Roddy at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in Greenwood Chapel in Fort Worth. There will be private burial in Greenwood Memorial Park (read Star-Telegram) Rod Roddy Remembered - Kent Burkhart recalls a future radio and TV legend's early days (read) Services for Dallas Morning News writer Al Brumley will be Saturday at 2 p.m. at Sparkman Hillcrest Funeral Home and Cemetery, 7405 W. Northwest Highway (read Dallas News) Prominent radio personality, B. Bailey Brown, died suddenly at his San Antonio home October 24, 2003. He was 57. As a boy in the 1950s, Brown regularly listened to the wise-cracking disc jockeys on the radio and soon developed a love for broadcasting. Brown began his career at the age of 14 at KBER in San Antonio in 1961, where he worked for no pay in exchange for being taught the broadcasting trade (read San Antonio Express-News) (read SAEN) Al Brumley, radio columnist and arts reporter for The Dallas Morning News, died at 1:20 p.m. Tuesday at Doctors Hospital in Dallas. Mr. Brumley, 40, was checked into the hospital on Sunday and had since been on life support. After being diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1996, Mr. Brumley had been fighting a battle against cancer that had been marked by three operations and various rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Al was a charter year member of the Texas Radio Hall of Fame (read Robert Philpot - Star-Telegram) (read Dallas Morning News) (read KRLD) Rod Roddy passed away Monday afternoon at Century City Hospital following a courageous two-year battle with colon, prostate and breast cancer. Beginning in 1985, he became the voice on The Price Is Right that invited contestants to "Come on down!" "Rod was my best friend,” emailed Jhani Kaye, director of AC Programming for Clear Channel/LA. “Above and beyond that, he was an incredible broadcaster that set the bar for television announcing (read Don Barrett - LARadio.com) Rod. Roddy was a radio personality in the Dallas-Fort Worth area before going to Hollywood. The Fort Worth native worked at KLIF-AM (570) in the early 1970s, hosting a late-night radio program. Mr. Roddy was inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame in 2002, during which former colleagues reminisced about his flamboyance and referred to him as a "tremendous talent" (read Dallas Morning News - ) Rod Roddy, the flamboyantly dressed announcer on "The Price is Right," whose booming, jovial voice invited lucky audience members to "Come on down!" died Monday. He was 66. Roddy, who suffered from colon and breast cancer, died at Century City Hospital, according to his agent, Don Pitts. Roddy had been ill for more than two years but tried to work as long as he could, said Bob Barker, host of "The Price is Right." Roddy had been with the game show for 17 years. Roddy, whose real name was Robert Ray Roddy, was born Sept. 18, 1937, in Fort Worth, Texas, Pitts said. He was a charter year inductee of the Texas Radio Hall of Fame (read Fox News) (read Washington Post) (read CBS News) (read Rod Roddy Profile-Dallas Morning News) (read Star-Telegram) Rod Roddy use to follow me around in high school taking pictures because I was his favorite "jock"...he will be missed Jack Auldridge It is with great sadness we report that another member of the KQV family has passed away. Jeff Roteman remembers Rod Roddy (read)
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