Kindness and Wonder Sources
My publishers informed me that there wasn’t room in the printed version of Kindness and Wonder for a detailed set of endnotes; happily, the Internet had a spare terabyte or two. If you’re looking for the source of various quotations in the book, you’ve come to the right place. (I have profound respect and gratitude for all the Fred Rogers scholars and interviewers who came before me—if you want to know more about the man’s life, I encourage you to check out their work.)
PREFACE: HELLO, NEIGHBOR
p. 1 “My mother used to say”: Karen Herman, “Fred Rogers,” Archive of American Television, televisionacademy.com, July 22, 1999.
p. 5 “I’m a composer and a piano player”: Barry Head, “The Amazing Mister Rogers,” KPBS On Air, April 1984. (Mister Rogers circulated the same interview through other mailings to supporters of public television and the Neighborhood.)
PART ONE: LET’S MAKE THE MOST OF THIS BEAUTIFUL DAY
p. 13 “I was thrilled with all those ones”: John Sedgwick, “Who the Devil Is Fred Rogers?”, Wigwag, November 1989.
p. 14 “married the boss’s daughter”: Ibid.
p. 14 “Mrs. Rogers was like my mom’s daughter”: Author interview with Nancy Donahue.
p. 16 “Fred had more of everything”: Sedgwick.
p. 16 “I had every childhood disease”: Ibid.
p. 16 “Fred was the richest kid in town”: Ibid.
p. 17 “She loved children”: Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember, 2003. Reprint, Hachette Books, 2014. p. 17 “She let me put the bread in the toaster”: Ibid.
p. 17 “It wasn’t long before”: Fred Rogers, Life’s Journeys According to Fred Rogers: Things to Remember Along the Way, 2005. Reprint, Hachette Books, 2014.
p. 19 “I was used to neat-as-a-pin parlors”: Fred Rogers with Kathryn Brinckerhoff, “I Like You Just the Way You Are,” Guideposts, September 1980.
p. 19 “Hey. I, uh, I want to climb the stone walls”: Ibid.
p. 21 “I was always able to cry or laugh”: Karen Herman, “Fred Rogers,” Archive of American Television, televisionacademy.com, July 22, 1999.
p. 21 “heirloom”: Maxwell King, The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers, Abrams Press, 2018.
p. 22 “There’s something very mystical”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 22 “I was trying to learn so many things”: Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers.
p. 22 “was so kind and so sweet”: King.
p. 23 “I know what kind you want”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 23 “When I got to high school”: Margaret Mary Kimmel, Ph.D., and Mark Collins, The Wonder of It All: Fred Rogers and the Story of an Icon, Fred Rogers Center, September 2008.
p. 24 “In 1944”: Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers.
p. 24 “In our class”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 24 “we started to talk”: Ibid.
p. 25 “very determined person”: Sedgwick.
p. 25 “What a difference”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 25 “He was a very meticulous student”: King.
p. 26 “One of us did a lot more with it”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 26 “He was so enthusiastic”: Ibid.
p. 26 “I thought I was going to be”: Rogers, Life’s Journeys According to Fred Rogers.
p. 26 “Fred, we won’t have this department”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 27 “We were delighted”: Joanne Rogers, “Foreword,” The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember by Fred Rogers, 2003. Reprint, Hachette Books, 2014. Fred Rogers vividly remembered being picked up by the friendly gang of students, although he thought he arrived at a local airport.
p. 27 “Dartmouth was very cold”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 28 “It had six hundred students”: Author interview with Kay Griffith.
p. 28 “Winter Park is in dire need”: Michael G. Long, Peaceful Neighbor: Discovering the Countercultural Mister Rogers, Westminster John Knox Press, 2015.
p. 29 “Life is for service”: King.
p. 29 “It was not all fun and games”: Joanne Rogers, “Foreword,” The World According to Mister Rogers.
p. 29 “I had never done anything onstage”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 29 “The prize was a big bottle of champagne”: Joanne Rogers, “Foreword,” The World According to Mister Rogers.
p. 30 “I had a piano in my room”: Charles Winecoff, Split Image: The Life of Anthony Perkins, Plume, 1997.
p. 31 “I saw this new thing called television”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 31 “People were dressed up”: Ibid.
p. 32 “I don’t think I’ll go into seminary right away”: Ibid.
p. 32 “I remember a very soft-spoken”: King.
p. 33 “I wanted milk and not sugar“: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 34 “First of all, I timed programs”: Ibid.
p. 34 “Snooky Lanson used to go”: Ibid.
p. 35 “Often you don’t know the depths”: Ibid.
p. 35 “When I look at the camera”: Ibid.
p. 36 “Which one is the green one?”: Ibid.
p. 36 “Come on, let’s go”: Winecoff.
p. 37 “I thought television was doing”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 37 “You are nuts!” Ibid.
p. 38 “I was the only one crazy enough”: “Educational TV, and How It’s Coming,” Changing Times, July 1954.
p. 39 “Between us, we had about eighty-seven programs”: Rob Owen, “Obituary: Josie Carey,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 29, 2004.
p. 39 “We had a plastic fish”: Robert King Clark, “Misterogers’ Neighborhood: A Historical and Descriptive Analysis,” Ohio State University dissertation, 1971.
p. 41 “We used it very carefully”: Karen Herman, “Josie Carey,” Archive of American Television, televisionacademy.com, July 23, 1999.
p. 41 “People had been watching the test pattern”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 42 “We had a magician”: Herman, “Josie Carey.”
p. 42 “I combed through the country”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 43 “Fred would see”: Clark.
p. 43 “Josie would talk with Daniel”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 43 “I am so upset”: Ibid.
p. 44 “In one ear”: Herman, “Josie Carey.”
p. 44 “A boy can’t have a girl”: Ibid.
p. 44 “And I’d give him”: Ibid.
p. 44 “The part of Fred”: Clark.
p. 44 “We dressed him up with a little mustache”: Ibid.
p. 45 “What we suggested to him”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 46 “Wouldn’t it be funny”: Clark.
p. 47 “He took a keen interest”: Angela Santomero, “Fred Rogers’ Message from a Friend Pt. II,” angelasclues.com.
p. 47 “You learn by doing”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 48 “Josie sang the opening song”: Ibid.
p. 49 “When you’re doing an hour a day”: Ibid.
p. 49 “He just seemed like he was afraid”: Herman, “Josie Carey.”
p. 49 “Who lives there?”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 50 “He had a modern castle in the sky”: Herman, “Josie Carey.”
p. 50 “Ticker the Elf and Parmazelle Turtel”: Davitt Woodwell, “From a Corner to a Neighborhood.” There’s an astonishing amount of confusion about the timing of Fred’s activities in the 1950s and 1960s: otherwise reliable sources have conflicting information about the dates of almost all important milestones in that era (when he did various TV programs, when he moved from one city to another, etc.). This Family Communications memo (now in the archives of the Fred Rogers Center at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe) was Fred’s effort to get the chronology of his life from 1954 to 1971 straight: it’s annotated and corrected in his own hand. The memo is the most authoritative timeline available, and so I have relied on it for dates in this era.
p. 51 “We broke a record”: Herman, “Josie Carey.”
p. 51 “you can’t make us move”: Ibid.
p. 52 “They wanted to introduce us”: Ibid.
p. 53 “Well then, I don’t think”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 53 “He was giving me a royal test”: Clark.
p. 53 “My child is so invested”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 54 “It was just the most exciting night”: Herman, “Josie Carey.”
p. 54 “It gave me a chance”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.” It wasn’t literally all his talents, of course. His facility with French was employed only lightly (via Grandpere) and he made no use of his photography and pilot skills. He clearly needed a second career that would have made full use of all them—perhaps he could have spent summers in Quebec doing aerial photography?
p. 54 “If you were starting”: King.
p. 55 “Three or four days a week”: Ibid.
p. 55 “Dr. Orr, what is that one little word”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 56 “With only one course a semester”: Fred Rogers, “At Play in the Neighborhood,” prologue to Shakespeare Plays the Classroom, edited by Stuart Omans and Maurice O’Sullivan, Pineapple Press, 2003.
p. 57 “attitudes aren’t taught”: Sally Ann Flecker, “When Fred Met Margaret,” Pittmed, Winter 2014—quoting Pulitzer-winning historian David McCullough, a Pittsburgh native and an admirer of McFarland.
p. 57 “She once invited a well-known sculptor”: Rogers, “At Play in the Neighborhood.”
p. 58 “You are not trained therapists”: Ibid.
p. 58 “There was one little boy”: Ibid.
p. 58 “We were a not-so-young mother and father”: Joanne Rogers, “Foreword,” Many Ways to Say I Love You: Wisdom for Parents and Children from Mister Rogers by Fred Rogers, 2006. Reprint, Hachette Books, 2016.
p. 59 “Only two stations in the city”: Herman, “Josie Carey.”
p. 59 “They thought maybe I could live”: Ibid.
p. 60 “Fred went to his family”: King.
p. 60 “Fred sometimes didn’t want to have”: Herman, “Josie Carey.”
p. 60 “His mother always said”: Ibid.
p. 61 “He was starting to feel a call”: Ibid.
p. 61 “was the total opposite”: Ibid.
p. 61 “Do you realize”: Ibid.
p. 62 “For one show to continue”: Ibid.
p. 62 “expecting to produce a program”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 63 “Look, here’s an individual”: King.
p. 63 “I was ordained”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 64 “You’ll never know what your phone call”: King.
p. 65 “The day after commencement”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 65 “Fred was almost my minister”: Herman, “Josie Carey.”
p. 65 “I’ve seen you talk with kids”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 69 “He told me that his analyst”: King.
p. 69 “It was a tough decision”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 69 “I had nothing to come back to”: Ibid.
p. 70 “I disapprove of hosts”: Ibid.
p. 71 “Fred and commercial television”: Rich Kienzle, “Pittsburgh’s Guitar Man: Joe Negri,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 25, 2011.
p. 71 “That’s the only commercial”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 72 “Horne’s got all kinds of rave reviews”: King.
p. 73 “the white Art Tatum”: Roy Kohler, “His Favorite Melody is ‘Home Sweet Home,’ The Pittsburgh Press, February 26, 1956.
p. 73 “How much money do you have?”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 74 “Fred jumped in front of the lion”: Herman, “Josie Carey.”
p. 75 “If we had continued to work together”: Ibid.
p. 75 “This is my major work in life”: Percy Shain, “Misterogers,” Boston Sunday Globe, May 14, 1967.
p. 75 “Over six thousand wide-eyed children”: Eliot A. Daley, “Fred Rogers and His Neighborhood,” Presbyterian Life, February 15, 1969.
p. 76 “He had been talking with NET”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 76 “I did not create Fred Rogers”: King.
p. 76 “The opening reality of the show”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 78 “Fred said, with twenty minutes to go”: King.
p. 81 “lonely bohemian”: Kevin Smith, “Betty Aberlin,” smodcast.com, August 11, 2011.
p. 82 “If I had known I was taking her place”: Ibid.
p. 82 “Daniel was my surrogate child”: William V. Madison, “Interview: Betty Aberlin,” Billevesées, March 22, 2009.
p. 83 “That man didn’t shoot the other man”: Adam Nedeff, “Violent Images: The Assassination Special,” neighborhoodarchive.com, June 5, 2018.
p. 84 “He did the most beautiful script”: Smith.
p. 84 “the Pied Piper of the TV set”: Robert Higgins, “The Pied Piper of the TV Set,” TV Guide, September 21, 1968.
p. 85 “I had to go to Miami”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 89 “I’m not a character”: Barry Head, “The Amazing Mister Rogers,” KPBS On Air, April 1984.
p. 90 “You gotta be kidding”: Kevin Kirkland, “Joe Negri’s jazz guitar is his legacy,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 6, 2017.
p. 91 “People applaud the same way”: Amanda Carlo, “Knocking on the Door of… Barbara Russell,” Sampsonia Way, February 23, 2011.
p. 93 “keep on keeping on”: Long.
p. 93 “I never had someone express”: Chris Azzopardi, “Mister Rogers’s Gay, Black Friend François Clemmons Wears Tiaras Now,” vanityfair.com, June 27, 2018.
p. 93 “You have a beautiful voice”: Long.
p. 94 “I grew up in the ghetto”: Jasmyn Belcher Morris (producer), “Walking the Beat in Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, Where a New Day Began Together,” NPR Morning Edition, March 11, 2016.
p. 94 “convinced me to try”: “François Clemmons: From Mozart to Mister Rogers,” NPR Ask Me Another, June 29, 2018.
p. 94 “my friends used to tease me”: Long.
p. 95 “I felt unworthy”: Beasley Doyle, “In François Clemmons’s unlikely neighborhood,” UU World, Fall 2016.
p. 95 “He was the first one to say”: “François Clemmons: From Mozart to Mister Rogers.”
p. 95 “Franc, we’ve come to love you”: Long.
p. 96 “Well, you know, I must be”: King.
p. 96 “I think Fred had that feminine sensibility”: Amy Kaufman, “Fred Rogers’ family keeps the legacy of ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood’ alive with a candid new documentary,” Los Angeles Times, June 12, 2018.
p. 97 “Societal norms were vastly different”: Azzopardi.
p. 97 “I was standing on the other side”: Long.
p. 98 “King Friday thought”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 98 “There are some people who still want”: “Door Interview: Mr. Fred Rogers,” The Wittenburg Door, Number 37, June-July 1977.
p. 98 “I woke up one morning: Herman, “Fred Rogers.” (Daily home milk delivery was a thing in the twentieth century.)
p. 99 “I wonder at what age”: King.
p. 99 “It was so low-budget”: Madison.
p. 99 “I think silence”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 100 “the secretary”: “Door Interview: Mr. Fred Rogers.”
p. 100 “I’m not John Wayne”: Kenneth A. Briggs, “Mr. Rogers Decides It’s Time to Head for New Neighborhoods,” The New York Times, May 8, 1975.
p. 101 “that ‘magic’ can happen”: “A Couple of Changes,” Around the Neighborhood newsletter, Volume 1, Number 4, 1973.
p. 103 “Children are very concerned about body integrity”: Wade H. Mosby, “As I See It,” Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 1976.
p. 103 “She helped me to realize”: Rogers, “At Play in the Neighborhood.”
p. 104 “As gently as I could”: Ibid.
p. 104 “We had a four-man crew”: Author interview with Nick Tallo.
p. 105 “Bobby Vaughn was Fred’s cameraman”: Author interview with Arthur Greenwald.
p. 105 “What we do isn’t simple”: King.
p. 105 “Fred was really fun to work with”: Author interview with Bob Brown.
p. 107 “It was the most terrific ending”: Ibid.
p. 107 “Everything stopped dead”: Ibid.
p. 108 “In all the years I worked on the show”: Author interview with Nick Tallo.
p. 108 “Fred, what would Lady Elaine say”: Author interview with Arthur Greenwald.
p. 108 “There were times when Fred was tired”: Author interview with Nick Tallo.
p. 109 “I was kind of a wise guy”: Author interview with Walt Seng.
p. 110 “I’d rather not”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 110 “I think of that every time”: Ibid.
p. 110 “sitting around the dining room table”: Fred Rogers, Dear Mister Rogers: Does It Ever Rain in Your Neighborhood?, Penguin, 1996.
p. 110 “It’s the quality of the letters”: Rob Owen and Barbara Vancheri, “Fred Rogers dies at 74,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 28, 2003.
p. 111 “Sometimes we’re two”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 111 “He brought things like a stethoscope”: Author interview with Rita Moreno.
p. 112 “He was deceptively funny”: Daniel Kellison, “Dinner with Daniel: Michael Keaton,” Grantland, July 13, 2012.
p. 113 “We just had a ball”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 113 “He opened that door”: Author interview with Nick Tallo.
p. 113 “One day we were taping”: Kellison. (In an interview with this author, Tallo objected to “jackoff Michael Keaton” sharing this story with the world, including twice that he knew of on national television. Was he actually nude in the closet? “Well, yeah, but he doesn’t have to tell everybody!”)
p. 113 “We were very devoted”: Smith.
p. 116 “He really got to me”: “Fred Rogers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1981.
p. 117 “He’s flown the coop”: Cable Neuhaus, “Fred Rogers Moves into a New Neighborhood—and So Does His Rebellious Son,” People, May 15, 1978.
p. 117 “It’s been a difficult year”: Ibid.
p. 117 “It was difficult”: Morgan Neville (director), Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Focus, 2018.
p. 118 “To help kids realize”: “Flashback! Today visits ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood’ in 1979,” today.com, March 15, 2018.
p. 119 “There are lots of reasons to cry”: John Kenyon, “A Conversation with Fred Rogers,” Christian Herald, March 1980.
p. 119 “Their associations were what fascinated me”: Ibid.
p. 120 “Bob Trow walked in one day”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 121 “The program was straightforward”: Author interview with Lynn Swann.
p. 121 “He inspired so many people”: Author interview with Ben Adelman.
p. 122 “Well, maybe it was unconscious”: Sedgwick.
p. 123 “I don’t think you can separate”: “Door Interview: Mr. Fred Rogers.”
p. 123 “I think that becoming very rich”: Sedgwick.
p. 123 “Television is really part of the extended family”: “Door Interview: Mr. Fred Rogers.”
p. 124 “He is a great advocate”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 124 “We’d never think of putting anybody”: Daley.
p. 125 “It’s cool”: Author interview with Bill Nye.
p. 125 “I didn’t grow up watching Fred”: Author interview with LeVar Burton.
p. 127 “It scares me if somebody”: Sedgwick.
p. 128 “I just warm the juice up”: Candace A. Wedlan, “Can You Say ‘Avid Swimmer’?”, Los Angeles Times, October 20, 1997.
p. 128 “I was a vegetarian”: Ibid.
p. 128 “She herself will tell you”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.” Fred’s favorite desserts were prune whip and strawberry rhubarb pie.
p. 128 “The number 143”: Tom Junod, “Can You Say… Hero?”, Esquire, November 1998.
p. 129 “I like people to tell me”: Wedlan.
p. 129 “I knew John would give me”: Sedgwick.
p. 130 “You know how when you feel”: Amy Hollingsworth, The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers: Spiritual Insights from the World’s Most Beloved Neighbor, Thomas Nelson, 2005.
p. 130 “Oh, that kid is sooo many things in me”: Paul Hendrickson, “In the Land of Make Believe, The Real Mister Rogers,” The Washington Post, November 18, 1982.
p. 131 “There was never a time”: Author interview with Arthur Greenwald.
p. 131 “Those may seem like unexpected words”: Fred Rogers, Extraordinary Friends, Puffin, 2000.
p. 132 “a teddy bear’s den”: Author interview with Tony Cartledge.
p. 132 “I felt like a guest”: Author interview with Jay O’Callahan.
p. 133 “I think the best that we can do”: King.
p. 133 “You are so brave”: Sedgwick.
p. 134 “I would like you to do something for me”: Junod.
p. 134 “The boy had always”: Ibid.
p. 135 “If he looks uncertain”: Sedgwick.
p. 135 “It was real tight”: Author interview with Nick Tallo.
p. 135 “it got to the point”: Ibid.
p. 136 “If something was wrong”: Ibid.
p. 136 “The trick is to do it quickly”: Sedgwick.
p. 136 “That’s what I try to do with sex”: Ibid. The incident happened in 1989, meaning that the concise version of that joke (“That’s what she said”) had not yet become popular.
p. 136 “Fred was clueless”: Author interview with Nick Tallo.
p. 136 “Not to brag”: Ibid.
p. 137 “I’ll be goddamned”: Sedgwick.
p. 137 “every once in a while”: Author interview with Nick Tallo.
p. 141 “Am I a sheep?”: Neville.
p. 141 “I was hungry and you gave me food”: New Revised Standard Version Bible.
p. 141 “If anyone is a sheep”: Neville.
PART TWO: THE TEN PRINCIPLES OF FRED ROGERS
The First Way: Be deep and simple.
p. 145 “I heard the worst sermon”: Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember, 2003. Reprint, Hachette Books, 2014.
p. 145 “Mercifully”: Amy Hollingsworth, The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers: Spiritual Insights from the World’s Most Beloved Neighbor, Thomas Nelson, 2005.
p. 146 “He said exactly”: Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers.
p. 146 “That sermon’s effect”: Ibid.
p. 146 “How our words are understood”: Fred Rogers, Life’s Journeys According to Fred Rogers: Things to Remember Along the Way, 2005. Reprint, Hachette Books, 2014.
p. 147 “We speak with more than our mouths”: Ibid.
p. 147 “Try your best”: Fred Rogers, Life’s Journeys According to Fred Rogers: Things to Remember Along the Way, 2005. Reprint, Hachette Books, 2014.
p. 147 “I thought it gave me”: “Actress Lauren Tewes,” UPI wire story, March 10, 1985 (quoting an article in the TV Guide issue of March 16, 1985).
p. 148 “I realized that in the world”: Hollingsworth.
p. 148 “I feel so strongly”: Benjamin Wagner and Christofer Wagner (directors), Mister Rogers & Me, PBS, 2012.
p. 149 “phantasmagorical decorations”: Maxwell King, The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers, Abrams Press, 2018.
The Second Way: Be kind to strangers.
p. 152 “asking merchants”: Author interview with Patrick Donahue.
p. 153 “It feels like you’re on a roller coaster”: Hayley Harding, “As Mister Rogers Documentary Hits Theaters, a Storrs Woman Shares Her Story of Friendship with the TV Icon,” The Hartford Courant, June 17, 2018.
p. 154 “My mother spoke to the caller”: Elizabeth Usher, “When Mister Rogers Visited Me in the Hospital While I Was in a Coma,” themighty.com, July 31, 2017.
p. 156 “It was really amazing”: Harding.
p. 156 “Fred didn’t always have time”: Ibid.
p. 157 “I am here to tell you to be friendly”: Scott Shane, “An Extraordinary, Ordinary Girl,” The Baltimore Sun, April 13, 1997
p. 157 “He was just as I imagined”: Usher.
p. 157 “I believe we can heal our world”: Beth Usher, “Community Contributors,” today.com, 2016
p. 158 “After a couple of phone calls”: Author interview with Saihou Omar Njie.
p. 160 “cat did it”: Anna Brooks, “Koko, the beloved gorilla who communicated through sign-language, dies at age 46,” popsci.com, June 21, 2018.
p. 160 “That was wonderful!”: Andrew Limberg, “‘Neighborhood’ Producer Remembers Mr. Rogers’ Visit With Koko The Gorilla,” kdkaradio.radio.com, June 21, 2018
p. 161 “He had this innate trust in beings”: Ibid.
p. 161 “Koko-love”: “Koko’s Farewell to Mister Rogers,” koko.org, March 25, 2003.
p. 161 “They are never going to take this car back!”: Limberg.
p. 161 “He blended into life”: Bob Batz Jr., “That time Fred Rogers officiated a wedding,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 19, 2018.
p. 163 “His show felt like a cool hand on a hot head”: Anthony Breznican, “Remembering Mister Rogers, a true-life ‘helper’ when the world still needs one,” ew.com (compiling his Twitter posts), May 23, 2017.
The Third Way: Make a joyful noise.
p. 167 “It’s a pretty song”: Author interview with Rita Moreno.
p. 168 “They were all uplifting”: Ibid.
p. 168 “He wrote these beautiful melodies”: Karen Herman, “Josie Carey,” Archive of American Television, televisionacademy.com, July 23, 1999.
p. 169 “One time we decided”: Karen Herman, “Fred Rogers,” Archive of American Television, televisionacademy.com, July 22, 1999.
p. 170 “Oh, a singing psychologist for children,” Joyce Millman, “What Mr. Rogers Could Have Taught Michael Jackson,” The New York Times, March 9, 2003.
p. 172 “It’s a musical grid, this neighborhood”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
The Fourth Way: Tell the truth.
p. 173 ” Mr. Rogers was a U.S. Navy Seal”: many locations on Internet, including thoughtco.com.
p. 174 “Fred didn’t know how to use a screwdriver”: Author interview with Nick Tallo.
p. 175 “With Fred, what you see is what you get”: Author interview with Bill Nye.
p. 176 “I’ve never seen you”: Glenn Collins, “Fred Rogers—TV’s Busy Surrogate Dad,” The New York Times, June 19, 1983.
p. 176 “Any self-respecting father”: Dean Gysel, “Gentle Misterogers really likes children,” Chicago Daily News, July 8, 1968.
p. 177 “voice that sounds adult”: Junod.
p. 177 “People love honesty”: Karen Herman, “Fred Rogers,” Archive of American Television, televisionacademy.com, July 22, 1999.
p. 177 “He was having fun”: Author interview with Ella Jenkins.
p. 178 “I only wear diapers at night now”: For example, Eliot A. Daley, “Fred Rogers and His Neighborhood,” Presbyterian Life, February 15, 1969; but also four years later, “Fred Rogers Has Millions of Little Pals on Public TV,” AP wire story, as seen in Asbury Park Sunday Press, May 27, 1973.
p. 178 “There is only one person”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 179 “I see you on television”: Gysel.
The Fifth Way: Connect with other people every way you can.
p. 182 “Mister Rogers brought out his television puppets”: Theresa Keane, “Children who met Mister Rogers were often scared of him. Here’s how he reacted.” (letter to the editor), The Washington Post, June 22, 2018.
p. 183 “I would give them a lot of puppets”: Karen Herman, “Fred Rogers,” Archive of American Television, televisionacademy.com, July 22, 1999.
p. 184 “Puppetry is a means of valuable transfer”: Madeline Rambert, “Une nouvelle technique en psychanalyse infantile: le jeu de guignols,” Revue Française de Psychanalyse, 10.1, 1938.
p. 184 “What’s notable about Rogers”: Author interview with John Bell.
p. 185 “Glove puppets are one of the oldest styles”: Author interview with Spencer Lott.
p. 185 “Many of them were built by Lee Howard”: Ibid.
p. 186 “Your puppets are on strings”: Author interview with Bob Brown.
p. 186 “Being a television puppeteer”: Author interview with Spencer Lott.
p. 187 “I don’t know that it was intentionally amateurish”: Glenn Collins, “Fred Rogers—TV’s Busy Surrogate Dad,” The New York Times, June 19, 1983.
p. 188 “Puppeteers often get into that field”: Author interview with John Bell.
p. 188 “Spending time in that world”: Author interview with Spencer Lott.
The Sixth Way: Love your neighbors.
p. 190 “The two have a strange spiritual kinship”: Rob Sheffield, “Why ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’ Has Given Birth to Mr. Rogers Fever,” rollingstone.com, July 9, 2018.
p. 192 “one hundred identical white shirts”: Bob Colacello, Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up, HarperCollins, 1990.
p. 193 “Art is what you can get away with”: Warhol may have swiped this line from Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan.
p. 194 “The earliest days were the best”: Kevin Smith, “Betty Aberlin,” smodcast.com, August 11, 2011.
p. 194 “I think we all stayed”: Ibid.
p. 195 “He didn’t want to talk about his cousin”: Author interview with Nick Tallo.
p. 195 “Everybody should like everybody”: Jennifer Sichel, “Do you think Pop Art’s queer?”, Oxford Art Journal, volume 41, issue 1, March 2018. Sichel argues that Warhol’s quotation was principally intended to be about homosexuality—I think that although may have been his original point, he was also aware of the statement’s power as a desexualized manifesto.
p. 195 “everybody should be a machine”: Ibid.
p. 195 “A Coke is a Coke”: “What Andy Warhol really thought about Coca-Cola,” phaidon.com, January 31, 2019.
p. 197 “a grainy little movie”: Vincent Canby, “Night of Living Dead,” The New York Times, December 5, 1968.
p. 197 “We got jobs”: George A. Romero, “Blood Diary, Part 2,” diamonddead.com, January 15, 2004.
p. 197 “Totally different genres—puppets and zombies”: Author interview with Nick Tallo.
p. 197 “It was shot in a real, working hospital”: Romero.
p. 198 “He loved the film”: Nelson Wyatt, “‘Night of the Living Dead’ director Romero unimpressed by today’s zombies,” The Canadian Press, December 9, 2014.
p. 198 “I’m sure glad you don’t”: Steve Bean Levy, “Mister Rogers Picked Me Up Hitchhiking,” Mel Magazine, June 6, 2016.
p. 198 “In the daytime”: Author interview with Nick Tallo.
The Seventh Way: Find the light in the darkness.
p. 202 “I was broken up pretty badly”: Author interview with Tony Cartledge.
p. 203 “From the time she was two years old”: letter from Tony Cartledge to Fred Rogers, February 2, 1994.
p. 204 “Mister Rogers was just so pastoral”: Author interview with Tony Cartledge.
p. 208 “To use as a bookmark”: Tony Cartledge, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”, Campbell University Divinity School Chapel Service, November 20, 2016.
p. 208 “He brought hope to me”: Author interview with Tony Cartledge.
The Eighth Way: Always see the very best in other people.
p. 209 “You are the first person”: “Candid Camera Classic: Remembering Mister Rogers,” youtube.com, March 15, 2018. (Peter Funt is the son of Candid Camera’s creator and original host, Allen Funt.)
p. 211 “Why can’t he change his shoes”: “‘D’ Is for Date,” Family Ties, March 20, 1987.
p. 212: “It hurts me when people make fun of me”: Unpublished interview with Fred Rogers, 1987.
p. 212 “There are adults”: Dennis Ruffing, “Mr. Rogers: Reluctant Star,” Pittsburgh East, July 19-August 1, 1979.
p. 213 “darker, more saturated tones,” Owen Phillips, “Every Color of Cardigan Mister Rogers Wore from 1979-2011, theawl.com, May 18, 2017. (Phillips draws from data compiled by Tim Lybarger for theneighborhoodarchive.com.)
p. 214 “Do you know that”: Dave Domingo, “It’s a comical day in the neighborhood,” Seventytwohours, July 24, 1998.
p. 214 “The way to do the president”: David Sims, “Dana Carvey’s George H. W. Bush Was an All-Time Great SNL Impression,” theatlantic.com, December 3, 2018.
p. 215 “I’ve told Johnny”: Glenn Collins, “Fred Rogers—TV’s Busy Surrogate Dad,” The New York Times, June 19, 1983.
p. 215 “You know, Fred”: Karen Herman, “Fred Rogers,” Archive of American Television, televisionacademy.com, July 22, 1999.
p. 215 “Harvey Korman many times”: Author interview with Rita Moreno.
p. 216 “There have been people on local stations”: Unpublished interview with Fred Rogers, 1987.
p. 217 “Well, that’s wonderful”: Maxwell King, The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers, Abrams Press, 2018.
p. 217 “If this offends you personally”: “Mr. Rogers flame broils Burger King’s Mr. Rodney,” AP wire story, as seen in the Spokane Chronicle, May 9, 1984.
p. 217 “Mr. Rogers is one guy”: Ibid.
p. 219 “Here’s the real Mister Rogers!”: Herman, “Fred Rogers.”
p. 219 “Some of them aren’t very funny”: Late Night with David Letterman, February 17, 1982.
The Ninth Way: Accept the changing seasons.
p. 223 “I really worked through it”: “The Considerate Mister Rogers,” Chicago Sun-Times, Feb 8, 1978.
p. 223 “I’ll never forget”: Amy Hollingsworth, The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers: Spiritual Insights from the World’s Most Beloved Neighbor, Thomas Nelson, 2005.
p. 223 “going to sleep”: Fred Rogers, “Dealing with Death: Thoughts from Fred Rogers: Children Are Curious,” fredrogers.org.
p. 224 “If this is where a good life leads”: Tim Madigan, I’m Proud of You: My Friendship with xx Fred Rogers, Ubuntu, 2012.
p. 224 “with grief, there is inevitably”: Ibid.
p. 224 “the Kingdom of God”: Ibid.
p. 224 “The connections we make”: Hollingsworth.
p. 225 “When I think about heaven”: Ibid.
p. 225 “I can’t think of a better place”: John Sedgwick, “Who the Devil Is Fred Rogers?”, Wigwag, November 1989.
p. 225 “Frankly, I think that after we die”: Hollingsworth.
The Tenth Way: Share what you’ve learned. (All your life.)
p. 229 “He is always drawn”: Marge Petruska, “Introduction,” Something Worth Giving: Reflections from Our Favorite Neighbor, GYCF (available for download at fredrogerscenter.org), 2002.
p. 231 “They came to help”: Fred Rogers, Something Worth Giving: Reflections from Our Favorite Neighbor, GYCF (available for download at fredrogerscenter.org), 2002.
p. 234 “When we see someone”: Fred Rogers, Extraordinary Friends, Puffin, 2000.
p. 234 “Everybody always cries”: John Sedgwick, “Who the Devil Is Fred Rogers?”, Wigwag, November 1989.