Just a quick one, Wolf Blitzer announced this afternoon that Jack Cafferty's wife Carol died unexpectedly this morning.
Not a lot of details. From Jack's Blog
Jack Cafferty isn’t here today for the Cafferty File because of some tragic news.
His wife of 35 years, Carol, passed away unexpectedly this morning. Carol was everything to Jack. The dedication of his book reads, “for Carol, my wife, my life.”
Jack wrote about how she was the inspiration for him to get sober and straighten up his life: “In all the years that we’ve been married, she has always brought to the table her unshakable grounding in something a lot more real than being on television or being recognized in the corner drugstore. She has been my rock, having done a magnificent job of keeping me from getting full of helium and drifting off the surface of the earth… She was all the incentive I needed to make painful but transforming changes – to get sober and stop smoking. I knew that I’d lose her if I didn’t. She’s an amazing woman who simply wasn’t worth losing.”
One story Jack loves to tell is how he and Carol met – when he was a local news anchor in Kansas City. They started to meet regularly for a quick meal between his shows and became good friends. Whenever Jack had to leave, his exit line was “We’d better wrap this up. Got to get back to the station.” One night Carol finally asked, “What kind of a gas station do you work at? You’re always wearing a tie.”
Jack explained it was a television station. He loved the fact that she had no clue and couldn’t care less that he had been on air there every night for four years. He later described that as one of his life’s “twenty-four-carat moments” that made his heart soar. He said to himself then that he might marry her because “it can’t get any more honest and pure than that.”
Our deepest sympathies go out to Jack and to their two daughters, Leslie and Leigh. Our thoughts are also with Jack’s other two daughters, Julie and Jill, and his grandchildren.
Carol was an animal lover. If you’d like to make a donation in her memory, the family asks you give to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. You can contribute at aspca.org.
Jack is one of the good guys in news his email is here
I join the huge community of Jack Cafferty viewers in sending our condolences to Jack and his family.
****UPDATE*****
little pointed out further down thread that when you email you will need to pick a time the show was aired. It was in the earliest block of The Situation Room, it is 2PM here CST.
****UPDATE #2 ****
Recommended, thank you all for the outpouring of affection for Jack. I will print this diary out and send to him. I hope it is a comfort in some way to know how much he is appreciated and how much we care for our "Uncle" Jack.
**** UPDATE #3****
My grandson who just turned 4 has been watching me tend this diary and wanted to know what I was doing. I explained to him that Jack Cafferty's wife had passed away this morning, like Bapa in heaven. Cranky Jack he asked, you see he knows who Jack Cafferty is. When I told him yes, he told me he likes cranky Jack, Jack is his friend and he started to tear up. Cranky Jack must be very sad today. Yes, I am sure he is and his children too. He asked if he could say a prayer. I told him that would be nice. When he finished his Hail Mary, he chose to remember Jack. Today he asked God to make cranky Jack and his little children feel better and not be so sad, to tell them it's OK, she is in heaven because she has been good.
One wouldn't think Jack's demographic would be toddler, but there is something about him Gabriel has found quite engaging and it says a lot about the man.