Death Takes Us All

Wow, reality sets in when you read the obituaries. In my mind it seems like these people are just kids like me. Reality is I have to face the fact I'm not a kid anymore either.


Suzanne Pleshette, the husky-voiced star best known for her role as Bob Newhart's sardonic wife on television's long-running "The Bob Newhart Show," has died at age 70.

Pleshette's career included roles in such films as Hitchcock's "The Birds."







Allan Melvin, a character actor best known for playing Sam the Butcher on "The Brady Bunch," has died. He was 84.






John Stewart, who wrote the Monkees' hit "Daydream Believer" and became a well-known figure in the 1960s folk music revival as a member of The Kingston Trio, has died, according to the band's Web site. He was 68.






Hula Hoop, Frisbee Maker Dies at 82

Richard Knerr, co-founder of the toy company that popularized the Hula Hoop, Frisbee and other fads that became classics, has died. He was 82.


A Legacy Of Kids' Toys

Wham-O co-founder Richard Knerr, whose company popularized the Hula Hoop, Frisbee and other classic toys has died at 82. Knerr once said that he contributed "fun" to America.

Knerr, who started Wham-O in 1948 with his childhood friend Arthur "Spud" Melin, died Monday at Methodist Hospital after suffering a stroke earlier in the day at his Arcadia home, his wife Dorothy told the Los Angeles Times.

Knerr and Melin got their start in business peddling slingshots. They named their enterprise Wham-O after the sound a slingshot made when it hit its target.

They branched into other sporting goods, including boomerangs and crossbows, then added toys that often bore such playful names as the Superball, Slip 'N Slide and Silly String.

When a friend told them in 1958 about a large ring used for exercise in Australia, they devised their own version and called it the Hula Hoop.

Around the same time, they bought the rights to a plastic flying disc invented by Walter "Fred" Morrison, who called it the Pluto Platter. Wham-O bought the rights and renamed it the Frisbee.

The rest is amusement history.