Joanne Rogers, widow of TV’s famed Mister Rogers, dies at 92

Joanne Rogers, an an accomplished concert pianist who celebrated and protected the legacy of her husband, the beloved children’s TV host Mister Rogers, has died in Pittsburgh. She was 92.

Rogers died Thursday, according to the Fred Rogers Center. No cause of death was given. The center called her “a joyful and tender-hearted spirit, whose heart and wisdom have guided our work in service of Fred’s enduring legacy.”

Joanne and Fred Rogers were married for more than 50 years, spanning the launch and end of the low-key, low-tech “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” which presented Fred Rogers as one adult in a busy world who always had time to listen to children. His pull as America’s favorite neighbor never seemed to wane before his death in 2003.

“I can’t think of a time when we’ve needed him so much,” Joanne Rogers told The Associated Press in 2018. “I think his work is just as timely now as it was when it came out, frankly.”

An ordained Presbyterian minister, Fred Rogers produced the pioneering show at Pittsburgh public television station WQED beginning in 1966, going national two years later. He composed his own songs for the show.

It offered a soft haven for kids, in sharp contrast to the louder, more animated competition. The final episode of what his widow called “a comfortable lap” aired in August 2001.

PBS stations around the country still air “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and some can be found on the PBS Kids video app. There are DVD collections on Amazon and episodes stream on Amazon Prime.

The city of Pittsburgh, where the show was produced, tweeted that Joanne Rogers was one of Pittsburgh’s “greatest neighbors.” It said the couple “forever changed our city.” Other tributes came from such varied fans as tennis star Billie Jean King to designer Kenneth Cole.

Fred Rogers’ effect on popular culture was profound: Eddie Murphy parodied him on “Saturday Night Live” in the 1980s and one of Rogers’ trademark zip-up sweaters hangs in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. He’s had a category dedicated to him on “Jeopardy.”

2018, the 50th anniversary of when Rogers first appeared on TV screens, prompted a PBS special, a new postage stamp, the feature-length documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” and, a year later, the Tom Hanks-led biopic “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”

Born Sara Joanne Byrd in 1928, Joanne Rogers met her future husband at Rollins College in Florida. After Fred Rogers’ death, she helped develop the Fred Rogers Center Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at St. Vincent College in his hometown of Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

“Joanne and Fred were Pennsylvania treasures committed to improving our communities and the lives of our children. We will never forget their legacy of kindness,” Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said in a statement.

She is survived by two sons, James Byrd Rogers and John Rogers.

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In this July 1986 file photo, Actress Jane Powell poses for a photo in New York. Jane Powell, the bright-eyed, operatic-voiced star of Hollywood’s golden age musicals who sang with Howard Keel in “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and danced with Fred Astaire in “Royal Wedding,” has died. Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021. She was 92. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Norm MacDonald arrives at the NBC Universal Summer Press Day in Pasadena, Calif., on April 2, 2015. MacDonald, a comedian and former cast member on “Saturday Night Live,” died Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021, after a nine-year battle with cancer that he kept private, according to Brillstein Entertainment Partners, his management firm in Los Angeles. He was 61. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

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Actor Michael Constantine at his sister’s home in 2016. On Sept. 9, 2021, it was announced that he had died the week prior at age 94. (Photo By Harold Hoch/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)

In this Oct. 14, 2013 file photo, French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo poses for photographers as he arrives at the opening ceremony of the 5th edition of the Lumiere Festival, in Lyon, central France. French New Wave actor Jean-Paul Belmondo has died, according to his lawyer’s office on Monday Sept. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani, File)

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Willard Scott, weathercaster on the NBC “Today” television program, appears during a segment of the show in New York Wednesday Nov. 21, 2007. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

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Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones performs during the concert of their No Filter Europe Tour 2017 at U Arena in Nanterre, outside Paris, France, on Oct. 22, 2017. Watts’ publicist, Bernard Doherty, said Watts passed away peacefully in a London hospital surrounded by his family on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021. He was 80. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

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AP Photo/LM Otero, File

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AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File

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Elgin Baylor stands next to a statue, just unveiled, honoring the Minneapolis and Los Angeles Lakers great, outside Staples Center in Los Angeles on Friday, April 6, 2018. Baylor died March 22, 2021. He was 86. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

AP Photo/Reed Saxon

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This Nov. 5, 2018 file photo shows radio personality Rush Limbaugh introducing President Donald Trump at the start of a campaign rally in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Limbaugh, the talk radio host who became the voice of American conservatism, has died. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

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Photo by Amy Sussman/Invision/AP

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Hilton Valentine of the British pop group The Animals. — Hilton Valentine (upper left), founding guitarist of English rockers The Animals, is credited with coming up with one of the most famous opening riffs of the 1960s. He died on Friday, Jan. 29, 2021 at age 77, according to the band’s label ABKCO Music. This photo is from 1983. (AP Photo, File)

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Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File

FILE – Cloris Leachman attends the premiere of “The Comedian” during the 2016 AFI Fest on Nov. 11, 2016, in Los Angeles. Leachman stars in the faith-based film “I Can Only Imagine” which has made over $22 million in just six days of release on a $7 million budget. Leachman, a character actor whose depth of talent brought her an Oscar for the “The Last Picture Show” and Emmys for her comedic work in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and other TV series, has died. She was 94. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

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In this May 17, 1970, file photo, Atlanta Braves’ Hank Aaron, center, who became the ninth player in Major League history to get 3,000 hits, kisses a baseball alongside Famer Stan Musial and Braves owner Bill Bartholomay, in Cincinnati. Aaron died Jan. 22, 2021. He was 86. (AP Photo/Gene Smith, File)

AP Photo/Gene Smith, File