Parker, as Crockett, was handsome, brave and definitively cool. He was what an American should be -- a genuine good guy. He was a tall man, 6 foot 6 inches, and he spoke with a slow, smooth, southern drawl that I can still hear in my head.
He made coonskin caps famous. I had one. All my buddies had one. Heck, every kid had one. I had a Davy Crockett lunch pail, too.
I'll never forget how sad I was when Fess Parker's Davy Crockett died at the Alamo. Fess Parker put the Alamo on the map.
And now my hero Fess Parker is really dead, not TV dead. All my childhood TV idols are gone -- Hoppy, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and the Lone Ranger. Those guys should never have died. They were too big, too strong, too brave, too famous. . . too "everything."
Reality strikes again, and I am sad.
Yes, three goodies passed on this week: Fess Parker, Peter Graves, and Merlin Olsen. Very sad week.
ReplyDeleteAnd you are right. Fess Parker was indeed a childhood idol. As they say, "Those were the days."
Fess Parker was an icon that will always live forever in baby boomers hearts. Taught us morals and ethics to live by like alot of others have. Rest in peace my friend, thanks for the memories!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe it! He was the hero of my brothers (rented movies of the shows in our little Alaskan town---oh man, they would watch those things over and over again!), and now is the hero of my little boys. It's so hard to believe he is gone! :(
ReplyDeleteAmen to the "Good Guys"! Fess Parker starred in one of my father's favorite Sci-Fi movies, "Them!" That is how I know him. Wish I had been born 50 years earlier!
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