Sadly, but maybe mercifully he passed away on Aug 8th, 2017.
Here is the statement put on the official Glen Campbell Facebook page:
It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and legendary singer and guitarist, Glen Travis Campbell, at the age of 81, following his long and courageous battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Glen is survived by his wife, Kim Campbell of Nashville, TN; their three children, Cal, Shannon and Ashley; his children from previous marriages, Debby, Kelli, Travis, Kane, and Dillon; ten grandchildren, great- and great-great-grandchildren; sisters Barbara, Sandra, and Jane; and brothers John Wallace “Shorty” and Gerald.
In lieu of flowers, donations for Alzheimer’s research may be made to the Glen Campbell Memorial Fund at BrightFocus Foundation through the donation page at Careliving.org.
The family appreciates your prayers and respect for their privacy at this time.
DAWG SAYS: My best to his family, friends, and loyal followers. (like me)
Fred Willard, the clever comic actor who played clueless characters to perfection on Fernwood 2 Night, Everybody Loves Raymond and as a member of a great ensemble in several Christopher Guest mockumentaries, has died. He was 86.
Willard died Friday night in Los Angeles of natural causes, his agent Michael Eisenstadt told The Hollywood Reporter.
According to his son Danny Jones Penniman, speaking to The New York Times, Little Richard died of cancer.
The rock ‘n’ roll original was 87 years old.
Known for his wild, flamboyant performing style, Richard Wayne Penniman inspired young musicians all over the world.
Born in Macon, Georgia—the second of 12 children—he was kicked out of his family’s home as a teenager and taken in by a white family, who ran the club where he first performed.
He got his start performing jump blues, but his most famous and successful work—songs like “Tutti Frutti,” “Long Tall Sally,” and “Good Golly Miss Molly”—came in the mid-1950s.
His music was covered by contemporaries like Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and Bill Haley.
LITTLE RICHARD PASSES AWAY AT 87 YEARS OLD
A wave of young British musicians—the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Rod Stewart, and Lemmy Kilmister, to name a few—cited Little Richard as an influence.
Elsewhere in the world, Richard was being studied by soul stars (Otis Redding, James Brown, Michael Jackson) and rock icons (Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, AC/DC).
In the late 1950s, he abandoned the raucous style of his early singles to pursue a career as a gospel artist.
He would eventually return to rock ‘n’ roll in the 1960s.
Later in life, Richard made appearances in children’s programming and recorded a children’s album.
He sang the theme song to The Magic School Bus, sang “Rubber Ducky” inside a bath tub on Sesame Street, and was a guest star on Pee-wee’s Christmas Special.
Little Richard was among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s first class of inductees in 1986.
He received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy and performed at Bill Clinton’s presidential inauguration in 1992.
The Library of Congress added “Tutti Frutti” to the National Recording Registry in 2010.
The song appeared on Lewis’ album Soul My Way, released November 1, 1967.
Before Lewis’ record was issued, on October 10, 1967, it was recorded by Teddy Hill & the Southern Soul as a single on Rice Records (Rice 5028 b/w “Stagger Lee”) and produced by Norro Wilson.
“Just Dropped In … peaked at number five on the Billboard charts. It was Rogers’ first top ten hit.
Harold Reid, a member of the legendary country group The Statler Brothers, died Friday (April 24) following a long battle with kidney failure. He was 80.
A statement on the band’s website reads, “He is and will always be loved by his family, friends and millions of fans. His singing, his songwriting and his comedy made generations happy. He has taken a piece of our hearts with him.”
He was a founding member of the singing group that gradually evolved into The Statler Brothers, which took its name from a brand of facial tissues.
The quartet traveled frequently with Johnny Cash starting in 1964 and enjoyed a major crossover single with “Flowers on the Wall” in 1965.
However the Statler Brothers truly hit their stride with their first charting single for Mercury Records, 1970’s “Bed of Rose’s,” which was written by Harold Reid.
He also co-wrote “The Class of ’57” with his younger brother and bandmate Don Reid. That 1972 single won a Grammy and they continued to chart on Mercury Records through 1990.
The band cultivated a comic presence on record and on the road with their alter egos, Lester “Roadhog” Moran & His Cadillac Cowboys.
But as the Statler Brothers, their biggest radio hits include 1978’s “Do You Know You Are My Sunshine” (their first No. 1, also written by Don and Harold Reid) as well as “Elizabeth,” “My Only Love,” and “Too Much on My Heart,” all No.
HAROLD REID PASSES AWAY
1 singles written by bandmate Jimmy Fortune. Philip Balsley rounded out the most recognizable lineup of the Statler Brothers, formed after Lew Dewitt’s departure due to ill health in 1982.
The Statler Brothers charted 66 singles on the Billboard country airplay chart between 1965 and 1990. They received nine CMA Awards for Vocal Group of the Year and two ACM awards in the same category.
The group’s Top 10 singles co-written by the Reid brothers include “The Official Historian on Shirley Jean Berrell,” “How to Be a Country Star,” “(I’ll Love You Even) Better Than I Did Then,” “Don’t Wait on Me,” “Whatever,” “Guilty,” and “Sweeter and Sweeter.”
While they were embraced by Nashville, the group kept their home base in Staunton, Virginia. After their hit streak at radio came to an end, the Statler Brothers starred in a highly-rated TNN variety series from 1991 to 1997.
The band retired from the road in 2002. They were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008 and received the ACM’s 2015 Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award.
DAWG SAYS: I AM A LONG TIME FOLLOWER OF THE STATLER BROTHERS AND SADLY ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END EVENTUALLY.
Anthony Alan Kauffman, 57, passed away peacefully at home in Turlock, CA, April 15, 2020. Anthony was born June 11, 1962 in Wichita Falls, Texas to Henry and Patricia Kauffman. Anthony attended Turlock High School and later founded and continued to serve as the President of Professional Lumper Services Inc. for 22 years until his passing. Anthony enjoyed his family BBQ’s, attending music concerts, racing events, especially drag boat races where he discovered a passion for photography. He also enjoyed boating and fishing and loved his visits to Maui where he traveled once or twice a year with family and friends. Anthony is survived by his wife, Connie Kauffman, his sons Steven Gregg, Justin Gregg, Christopher Gregg and Robert Gregg. He is also survived by his grandchildren Ian, Madison, Revis, Stone, Kaydence, Brooklynn and Peyton, his Pops, Jerry Phelps and his brothers Frank Kauffman, Mike James, William Phelps and David Phelps and Zorro his beloved Husky. Anthony was preceded in death by parents Henry Kauffman and Patricia Phelps, his sons, Korey Kauffman and Brandon Kauffman. Funeral Services will be held at Lakewood Memorial Park and Funeral Home at a later date.
MY THOUGHTS GO OUT TO HIS FAMILY AND FRIENDS, THE PICTURE ABOVE IS A VERY GOOD LIKENESS AND SERVES HIM WELL.
Anthony Alan KAUFFMAN Anthony Alan KAUFFMAN was born on June 11, 1962 and passed away on April 15, 2020.
Tony Kauffman was the father of Korey Kauffman who the District Attorney’s office accused Frank Carson and 7 other people being involved in Korey’s death.
I had the opportunity to talk to Tony Kauffman a few times and he really was a father in grief and confusion.
He was at a loss how the drugs had taken over his sons’ life so deeply and at times that emotion had overcome him in court.
I hope he has found some peace with all this as a parent should never lose a child.
Lakewood funeral home is handling the arrangements
I truly give my condolences to the family and friends.
If anyone would like to share their feeling about any of this please comment below or contact me @ Dawgonnitdawgsblog@gmail.com
Bill Withers passes away he wrote and sang a string of soulful songs in the 1970s that have stood the test of time, including ” Lean On Me, ” “Lovely Day” and “Ain’t No Sunshine,” has died from heart complications, his family said in a statement to The Associated Press. He was 81.
The three-time Grammy Award winner, who withdrew from making music in the mid-1980s, died on Monday in Los Angeles, the statement said. His death comes as the public has drawn inspiration from his music during the coronavirus pandemic, with health care workers, choirs, artists and more posting their own renditions on “Lean on Me” to help get through the difficult times.
“We are devastated by the loss of our beloved, devoted husband and father. A solitary man with a heart driven to connect to the world at large, with his poetry and music, he spoke honestly to people and connected them to each other,” the family statement read. “As private a life as he lived close to intimate family and friends, his music forever belongs to the world. In this difficult time, we pray his music offers comfort and entertainment as fans hold tight to loved ones.”
BILL WITHERS PASSES AWAY
Withers’ songs during his brief career have become the soundtracks of countless engagements, weddings and backyard parties. They have powerful melodies and perfect grooves melded with a smooth voice that conveys honesty and complex emotions without vocal acrobatics.
“Lean On Me,” a paean to friendship, was performed at the inaugurations of both Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. “Ain’t No Sunshine” and “Lean on Me” are among Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
“He’s the last African-American Everyman,” musician and band leader Questlove told Rolling Stone in 2015. “Bill Withers is the closest thing black people have to a Bruce Springsteen.”
Withers, who overcame a childhood stutter, was born the last of six children in the coal mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia. After his parents divorced when he was 3, Withers was raised by his mother’s family in nearby Beckley.
He joined the Navy at 17 and spent nine years in the service as an aircraft mechanic installing toilets. After his discharge, he moved to Los Angeles, worked at an aircraft parts factory, bought a guitar at a pawn shop and recorded demos of his tunes in hopes of landing a recording contract.
In 1971, signed to Sussex Records, he put out his first album, “Just As I Am,” with the legendary Booker T. Jones at the helm. It had the hits “Grandma’s Hands” and “Ain’t No Sunshine,” which was inspired by the Jack Lemmon film “Days of Wine and Roses.” He was photographed on the cover, smiling and holding his lunch pail.
“Ain’t No Sunshine” was originally released as the B-side of his debut single, “Harlem.” But radio DJs flipped the disc and the song climbed to No. 3 on the Billboard charts and spent a total of 16 weeks in the top 40.
BILL WITHERS PASSES AWAY
Withers went on to generate more hits a year later with the inspirational “Lean On Me,” the menacing “Who Is He (and What Is He to You)” and the slinky “Use Me” on his second album, “Still Bill.”
Later would come the striking ” Lovely Day,” co-written with Skip Scarborough and featuring Withers holding the word “day” for almost 19 seconds, and “Just The Two Of Us,” co-written with Ralph MacDonald and William Salter. His “Live at Carnegie Hall” in 1973 made Rolling Stone’s 50 Greatest Live Albums of All Time.
BILL WITHERS PASSES AWAY
“The hardest thing in songwriting is to be simple and yet profound. And Bill seemed to understand, intrinsically and instinctively, how to do that,” Sting said in “Still Bill,” a 2010 documentary of Withers.
But Withers’ career when Sussex Records went bankrupt and he was scooped up by Columbia Records. He no longer had complete control over his music and chaffed when it was suggested he do an Elvis cover. His new executives found Withers difficult.
None of his Columbia albums reached the Top 40 except for 1977’s “Menagerie,” which produced “Lovely Day.” (His hit duet with Grover Washington Jr. “Just the Two of Us” was on Washington’s label). Withers’ last album was 1985′s “Watching You Watching Me.”
Though his songs often dealt with relationships, Withers also wrote ones with social commentary, including “Better Off Dead” about an alcoholic’s suicide, and “I Can’t Write Left-Handed,” about an injured Vietnam War veteran.
He was awarded Grammys as a songwriter for “Ain’t No Sunshine” in 1971 and for “Just The Two Of Us” in 1981. In 1987, Bill received his ninth Grammy nomination and third Grammy as a songwriter for the re-recording of the 1972 hit ” Lean On Me” by Club Nouveau.
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015 by Stevie Wonder. Withers thanked his wife as well as the R&B pioneers who helped his career like Ray Jackson, Al Bell and Booker T. Jones. He also got in a few jabs at the record industry, saying A&R stood for “antagonistic and redundant.”
His music has been sampled and covered by such artists as BlackStreet’s “No Diggity,” Will Smith’s version of ” Just The Two Of Us, ” Black Eyed Peas’ “Bridging The Gap” and Twista’s “Sunshine.” The song “Lean on Me” was the title theme of a 1989 movie starring Morgan Freeman.
His songs are often used on the big screen, including “The Hangover,” “28 Days,” “American Beauty,” “Jerry Maguire,” “Crooklyn,” “Flight,” “Beauty Shop,” “The Secret Life of Pets” and “Flight.”
“I’m not a virtuoso, but I was able to write songs that people could identify with. I don’t think I’ve done bad for a guy from Slab Fork, West Virginia,” Withers told Rolling Stone in 2015.
He is survived by his wife, Marcia, and children, Todd and Kori.
Actor Max Von Sydow, who appeared in films and TV series including The Exorcist, Flash Gordon and Game of Thrones, has died at the age of 90.
His family announced “with a broken heart and infinite sadness” that the Swedish-born actor died on Sunday.
Von Sydow’s other film credits included Hannah and Her Sisters, The Seventh Seal and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
He was nominated for two Oscars during his career – including best actor in 1988 for Pelle the Conqueror.
His other Academy nomination was best supporting actor for his role in 2011’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.
Von Sydow had a fruitful run of 11 films with legendary Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, including The Seventh Seal, in which he famously played chess with Death.
Hollywood came calling, but he reportedly turned down the role of Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music.
He agreed to cross the Atlantic to play Jesus Christ in The Greatest Story Ever Told in 1965, and his global success grew with memorable roles like the priest Father Lankester Merrin in 1973 horror The Exorcist.
Von Sydow also appeared in Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report, and played comic book villain Ming the Merciless in 1980’s Flash Gordon.
“I really enjoyed that film. I grew up reading Flash Gordon so it was sort of nostalgic for me,” he once told The Times.
In 1983, Von Sydow played evil again when he was cast as the sinister Ernst Blofeld in James Bond adventure Never Say Never Again.
He was often typecast in Hollywood as the sophisticated villain, which the Associated Press said was down to him being “tall and lanky, with sullen blue eyes, a narrow face, pale complexion and a deep and accented speaking voice”.
But he once said in an interview: “What I as an actor look for is a variety of parts. It is very boring to be stuck in more or less one type of character.”
Describing him in 2007, the Los Angeles Times wrote: “Von Sydow is an inherently imposing screen presence with distinctive chiselled features. But in person, he is a warm, unpretentious man profoundly grateful for a career that he himself refuses to consider remarkable.”
Von Sydow was nominated for an Emmy in 1990 for his role in the HBO thriller Red King, White Knight.
He continued acting late in life, voicing a character in The Simpsons in 2014, appearing in Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015, and in three episodes of Game of Thrones as the Three-eyed Raven in 2016, which earned him a second Emmy nomination.
Director Edgar Wright led the tributes on Twitter, writing: “Max Von Sydow, such an iconic presence in cinema for seven decades, it seemed like he’d always be with us.
“He changed the face of international film with Bergman, played Christ, fought the devil, pressed the HOT HAIL button and was Oscar nominated for a silent performance. A god.”
Von Sydow was christened Carl Adolf, names which nod to his German ancestry.
“After the war Adolf was not a good name,” he explained in 2003. “And then when I got into theatre, people had trouble remembering the combination of Carl Adolf. So I thought I had to find something that people will remember and that sounds more artistic.
“When I was in the army we used to put on a revue, and I had a number with a fictitious flea called Max that could perform all kinds of tricks. This was a great success. After that evening the colonel always called me Max.”
Von Sydow has four sons – two with his first wife Christina Inga Britta Olin. In 1997, he married Catherine Brelet in Provence and became a citizen of France five years later, meaning he relinquished his Swedish citizenship.
DAWG SAYS: GROWING UP IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, I HAD THE PLEASURE OF SEEING ROCKY JOHNSON PERFORM ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS. IT WAS ALWAYS GOOD AND A LOT OF FUN……..
Renowned for doing his own stunts, he also starred on such shows as‘Hawaiian Eye’ and ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ and on the miniseries ‘Centennial.’
Robert Conrad, the athletic, two-fisted actor who starred as Secret Service agent James West and did his own spectacular stunts on the 1960s futuristic CBS Western The Wild Wild West, has died. He was 84.
“He lived a wonderfully long life and while the family is saddened by his passing, he will live forever in their hearts,” family spokesman Jeff Ballard toldPeople magazine. No other details of his death were immediately available.
Conrad, among the actors employed by Warner Bros. Television to appear on the studio’s stable of shows starting in the 1950s, first gained attention for playing Tom Lopaka, a partner in a detective agency, on ABC’s Hawaiian Eye.
The Chicago native also was known for starring as real-life World War II pilot Maj. Greg “Pappy” Boyington on NBC’s 1976-78 period drama Baa Baa Black Sheep (later known in syndication as Black Sheep Squadron), one of the first series created by Stephen J. Cannell.
Conrad, though, always said that the performance he was most proud of was his turn as the French-Canadian trapper Pasquinel in James Michener’s Centennial, the 16 1/2-hour, 12-episode miniseries about the evolution of the American West that aired on NBC in 1978-79.
He said Michener was on the set during production and told him that he “played the character better than he had written it,” Conrad noted during a 2006 chat for the website The Interviews: An Oral History of Television.
On The Wild Wild West, the lithe, blue-eyed Conrad starred as a government agent, working for President Ulysses S. Grant, who employed modern technology to combat villains in the 19th century. Jim West, who wore his spiffy clothes a bit too tight, rode a champion horse and had an eye for the ladies, was paired with Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin), a master of disguise.
The show was “James Bond as a cowboy,” and indeed, series creator Michael Garrison had once owned the movie rights to Ian Fleming’s first 007 novel, Casino Royale. Wild Wild West lasted four seasons, on the air from September 1965 through April 1969, and attracted another legion of fans in reruns.
Conrad and stuntman Whitey Hughes usually choreographed the show’s acrobatic fights (the scripts gave them an amount of time to do them, and they figured things out). Near the end of one season, Conrad said he almost was killed when he fell 14 feet onto a cement floor; he suffered what he described as a “six-inch linear fracture with a high temporal concussion.”
Concerned that they would lose the star of their show, CBS executives insisted a stunt double step in for Conrad, but that practice lasted only a couple of episodes, and, after a summer of healing, he was soon back “breaking things,” just as he always did.
He was one of the few actors to have been inducted into the Stuntmen’s Hall of Fame.
“Ross Martin once said in an interview on the Johnny Carson show, ‘Robert does his own stunts, and I do my own acting,’ ” he said. Asked if he took offense to that, Conrad replied: “I applauded it, it was the truth. I did my acting tongue in cheek. I didn’t take any of it seriously. The last year, I didn’t even read the scripts, I just read my part. And it worked.”
Conrad’s ego and toughness also were on display during the Battle of the Network Stars specials, where he more often than not captained the NBC squad to victory. (He did lose one memorable race to Welcome Back Kotter‘s Gabe Kaplan, getting caught down in the stretch.)
And in three years as a popular Eveready pitchman, Conrad stared into the camera and challenged anyone to knock a battery off his shoulder.
“Come on, I dare you,” he said.
Conrad Robert Falk was born on the South Side of Chicago on March 1, 1935. His father, Leonard, worked in construction and became vice president of the National Sugar Co., and his mother, Jacqueline, did PR and had clients including Patti Page and Vic Damone.
He played running back in high school, thought about a career as a boxer and, when he wasn’t loading or driving a truck, sang in a trio that performed in Chicago hotels.
After standing outside theaters to drum up publicity for 1956’s Giant (his mother had been dating a Warner Bros. executive, and Conrad bore a resemblance to the recently deceased James Dean), he thought he might try acting.
He attended Northwestern University, majoring in theater arts, and became friends with Rebel Without a Cause actor Nick Adams, who got him a part in Juvenile Jungle (1958).
For a TV show, Conrad landed a gig as a Native American who gets shot and falls off his horse. He fell backward, risking great injury. “That established me as having the talent to do stunts,” he said. “So when there was a speaking role associated with a stunt, they’d hire me. You got two for the price of one.”
During rehearsals for a fight sequence on the Warner Bros./ABC series Maverick, Conrad told his actor he was about to tussle with, ” ‘You’re getting too close, you’re getting too close,’ ” he recalled. “I said to the director, ‘Why don’t you double him?’ He said, ‘We don’t have a double for him, he’s going to have to smack you.’ I said, ‘If he does, he’s going to regret it.’
“So we rolled cameras, and sure enough, he hit me, and I hit him back. That went out to one of the executives, and one of them said, ‘I like that kid.’ And then they put me under contract.”
He played Lopaka, who was half-Caucasian and half-native Hawaiian, for four seasons on Hawaiian Eye, which also starred Anthony Eisley and Connie Stevens. (Lopaka also appeared on crossover episodes of another exotic WBTV show, 77 Sunset Strip.)
After starring with Marisol in the 1964 Spanish movie La nueva Cenicienta (The New Cinderella), Conrad was playing ‘Pretty Boy’ Floyd opposite Adams in Young Dillinger (1965) when he headed over to CBS after lunch to test for a new show, The Wild Wild West.
Very quickly, Conrad got a phone call saying he had been hired and was to start work the following Monday in Sonora, California. (He also said he turned down a chance to play Larry Hagman’s part on I Dream of Jeannie.)
Conrad said he trained in karate during the first season of Wild Wild West, and as the series went on, he wore blue underwear so that when his tight pants ripped during fights, the audience couldn’t tell.
With television violence coming under fire from politicians in the wake of the 1968 assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., Wild West West was canceled despite drawing a 33 share of the audience in its 1968-69 season.
Conrad said Baa Baa Black Sheep was axed because it was deemed too violent as well. “I got a double hit,” he said.
Wild Wild West, of course, was refashioned as a 1999 movie, with Will Smith passing up a chance to star in The Matrix to portray Jim West. Conrad called the remake “horrible” and “pathetic” and gladly accepted the Razzie Award for the film.
Kirk Douglas — renowned actor and father of Michael Douglas, with a decorated career spanning more than 6 decades — has died.
Kirk passed Wednesday. Kirk’s health had been in decline. In 1996 he suffered a stroke but recovered most of his faculties. Last time we saw him enjoying life was in April 2019 when he was “camping” in his grandson’s backyard.
Michael told People, “It is with tremendous sadness that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas left us today at the age of 103. To the world, he was a legend, an actor from the golden age of movies who lived well into his golden years, a humanitarian whose commitment to justice and the causes he believed in set a standard of us all to aspire to.”
Michael ended it this way … “But to me and my brothers Joel and Peter he was simply Dad, to Catherine, a wonderful father-in-law, to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren their loving grandfather, and to his wife Anne, a wonderful husband.”
Kirk’s appeared in a few minor Broadway productions in the ’40s but then put his career on hold and enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1941. After several years of service, Kirk returned to theater, but his best work came on the big screen.
The famed actor and producer earned critical acclaim for his role in the 1960 classic, “Spartacus.” In “Spartacus,” Kirk gave onscreen credit to blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. Kirk’s move started the dissolution of the infamous blacklisting policies that had begun nearly a decade prior.
Kirk was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in 1959 for his role as boxer Midge Kelly in “Champion.” He also earned 2 Oscar nominations as a producer for “The Bad and the Beautiful” in 1953 and “Lust for Life” in 1957.
He acted alongside John Wayne in 3 films — “In Harm’s Way,” “Cast a Giant Shadow” and “The War Wagon.” He also shared screen time with one Arnold Schwarzenegger … in the 1979 film “The Villain” and with Farrah Fawcett in the sci-fi flick, “Saturn 3.”
Fun fact … Kirk once earned a $50k paycheck for saying the only English word at the end of a 1980s Japanese TV commercial: Coffee.
Kirk survived a helicopter crash in 1991. Two other passengers were killed and Kirk was left with a terrible back injury. He also did tons of humanitarian work … serving as a Goodwill Ambassador for the U.S. State Department.
He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981 by President Jimmy Carter. France also honored Kirk with the prestigious Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. The Academy Awards also honored him with an honorary Oscar in 1995.
7-Year-Old Boy Wins ASPCA For Rescuing Over 1,350 Dogs From High-Kill Shelters
He might be small in stature and young in age, but his heart is as big as any experienced adult. He’s just 7 years old and has helped rescue over 1,300 dogs from kill shelters.
Roman MacConn from Augusta, Georgia, is being recognized as a hero for his loving heart. Since he was 4 years old, he has been passionately involved in helping to save animals, especially shelter dogs.
Over the past three years, Roma has saved 1,350 dogs and 50 cats whose days were numbered in high kill shelters.
And his accomplishment didn’t go unnoticed by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), who recently honored him with the ASPCA Kid of the Year Award for doing something that has really changed the lives of homeless pooches.
Together with his mother, Jennifer McConn, Roman transports pets in danger of euthanization from high-kill shelters in Texas to forever homes in the Pacific Northwest.
Roman’s mission to rescue animals began on his 4th birthday, when he asked his family and friends not to get him any gifts but instead use that money to contribute to his favorite animal rescue organization, Project Freedom Ride.
With the help of his mother, Roman angled towards more hands-on ways to help dogs in need.
So as their first family goal, they transported 31 dogs from a kill shelter in Texas to Washington and assisted in finding the dogs’ best homes. Since then, they’ve rescued more than 1,300 canines.
Speaking about his son’s passion, Jennifer said:
“He’s unique. He’s super empathetic and compassionate and he is like a ball of fire all wrapped into one, so he’s definitely a lot to keep up with.”
She also wrote on the Project Freedom Ride Facebook page:
“The only way I can describe Project Freedom Ride is we are a community. We partner with amazing Texas Rescues who help by pulling dogs from high-kill shelters or taking in strays and otherwise unwanted dogs prior to them entering such shelters and caring for them through their programs (vetting, fostering, etc) while we look for adopters and/or receiving partners in the Pacific Northwest to take them in.”
According to Roman, rescuing dogs gives them a chance to showcase their personalities.
And to spread awareness about animal protection, her mother captures videos of Roman playing with shelter dogs. She then uploads them on Facebook, giving people the chance to see that they don’t pose any dangers to children.
Roman explains:
“I think it’s very important for the dogs I meet that I give them the best chance at finding the right home that they need.”
He has since been recognized by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and hailed as “a born dog whisper.” He also made an appearance on The Ellen Degeneres Show, which donated $20,000 to his non-profit organization.
DAWG SAYS: A PERSON OF THE YEAR DESERVES THE AWARD FOR THEIR ACTUAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS NOT AN AGENDA.
