RIP Jim Nabors
 

Jim Nabors passed today at the age of 87. The Indy 500 has always been special to me and Jim was a big part of it.

"When I dream about the moonlight on the Wabash, then I long for my Indiana home"

Well golllllllleeee, that's a bummer.

RIP, Jim.

Let's all say a word together for Jim. One...two...three....Shazam!

I was sorry to see that he had stopped attending the race. I was afraid it was due to failing health, which appears to be the case.

I met him there in 86. I was in the suites in turn 2, and he greeted us in a most friendly manner. I can't say I was awestruck, but I surely failed to engage him properly.

For years I've thought, if I got the chance again, I would tell him how much I enjoyed his variety show with Frank Sutton, and how I especially liked the recurring Brothers-in-law skits. I'd'a told him that seeing Ronnie Schell's drunk character slide down the steps at the boarding house was often the highlight of my week :)

Doug

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I think my favorite Gomer line was from an Andy Griffith episode where he and Barney are trying to protect Andy. "Hootie hoo! Hootie hoo!"

He was in some of the funniest gags on that show. The episode where he kicked the box of Christmas lights off the roof of the court house is one of he best!

Doug

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"All of our names have moved up a notch." :-) I'm sorry to see him go; he--like Carl Malden--is one of those who demonstrated that outstanding entertainers can be normal, regular folks.
A late former co-worker of mine at the Fairbanks airport parking authority, Dorothy Waggoner, knew Mr. Nabors quite well (so did her brother Harry). They were natives of Montana and ran a dry-cleaning store in Whitefish, where many celebrities have homes (there, they mingle with the locals and are "just other locals"). Also:

Jim Nabors and his partner Stan, whose surname is rather unusual--"Cadwallader" (see: http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/...me-male-partner )--came in quite often, and they offered to take Dorothy and Harry on vacation with them on their private jet, but they couldn't afford to close their store for very long, and:

Dorothy told me that Jim didn't like to say his "trademark line" ("Well, goll-lee!") very often, but that he was glad to if, say, a grandparent asked him to so that a grandchild could hear it "live," after hearing it on one of his old television series. As well:

Carol Burnett was one of their regular customers, too. She always came in disguised, but as Dorothy said, "There was no way to hide that voice." The only celebrity customer she was glad to have leave after each visit was Evel Knievel, who once asked her, "Don't you want my autograph?" When she said "No," he asked, "Do you know who I am?", and she replied, "Yes--and I still don't want your autograph." (He didn't realize something that Gregory Peck had. Peck once said--when he wasn't recognized in a restaurant, and a friend who was with him suggested that he tell the waiter who he was, to get faster service--"If you have to tell people who you are, you're nobody.")