Gary Weir, a television performer who riddled Arkansas children as Bozo the Clown from 1966-91 with the intriguing question of "Do you walk to school or carry your lunch?" died Wednesday at his home in North Little Rock.
He was 75.
Weir died of a heart attack and complications from a stroke he suffered in 2012, Linda Gillam-Weir, his wife of 13 years, said Thursday.
"He never recovered. He was steadily getting weaker and weaker," Gillam-Weir said.
Weir's first job was as disc jockey "John Scott" at radio station KXLR. At the age of 23, Weir -- a native of Russellville -- was hired as a station announcer and weatherman and worked in sales at KATV, Channel 7, in Little Rock.
In the late 1950s, the Bozo the Clown franchise allowed television stations across the nation to produce their own Bozo shows.
Weir was chosen by station manager Bob Doubleday in 1966 to portray the beloved clown in the station's weekday television show. What was supposed to be a one-year contract turned into a 25-year career for Weir. While other stations around the nation had more than one actor filling the Bozo character's shoes, Weir was the only Bozo ever for Arkansas.
Weir quickly became an Arkansas celebrity, performing at special events and playing baseball against the minor-league Arkansas Travelers as a member of Bozo's All Stars at Ray Winder Field. Bozo's face was plastered in grocery stores on everything from hot dogs to Coleman Dairy milk, and banks opened Bozo savings clubs.
A 2016 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article said the wait list for children to be on Bozo's Big Top was two years.
Weir received numerous commendations throughout his career, including "Bozo Day in Arkansas" and proclamations from Govs. David Pryor and Bill Clinton. He was inducted into the Arkansas Entertainer's Hall of Fame in 2013.
"He's going to be sorely missed by so many people," Gillam-Weir said. "He couldn't go anywhere he wasn't recognized. It was like people went into spasms when they saw him. They were so excited. He was like a rock star."
Ron Sherman, a former television weatherman and now the owner of Ron Sherman Advertising and Teleproductions, said in a previous Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article that Weir was an Arkansas icon.
"Moms and grandmas would stop him in restaurants," Sherman said.
After he retired as Bozo the Clown in 1991, Weir performed as "Candy the Clown" for his new show Clowntown, USA, which ran 13 years in Arkansas and Mississippi. He also created and produced the horse-racing replay show The Oaklawn Report, which ran 18 years.
In recent years, Gillam-Weir said her husband's illness changed his whole life.
"He was just an incredible person. You're not going to find many people who didn't like Gary," she said. "It was really hard for me to see what that sickness did to him."
Still, Weir remained as active as he could and continued going to ballgames and lunches with lifelong friends Donny Ketchaside, Paul Rickman, Jimmy Sparks and Mona K. Ingram.
"They were like a lifeline to him," Gillam-Weir said. "They would pick him up and have to take his walker with them. They were kids together in Russellville, and it just never ended."
State Desk on 10/06/2017