Sad Farewell....

[wondersofwine]

Commentators speak of Bette Midler singing to him on his final show. I'm 90% certain that it was on his next-to-last show. I think the final show he had no guests and just talked to the audience. I may purchase the video or DVD that has Bette Midler on.
Johnny contributed several large sums of money to the University of Nebraska for the journalism and theater arts departments. He also was asked one year to select the yearbook beauty queen (I think from photos sent to him) and that year it was one of my Theta pledge sisters, Marilyn Masters. I met Johnny's sister at a Theta meeting in Monterey area, California. I think she lived in Carmel area. I saw him perform live once at the Nebraska Centennial celebration. He appeared at the Pershing Auditorium in Lincoln and killed the audience. Some of it was geared to local things like the small Lincoln airport with one limo driver or luggage handler or something like that.
One of the funniest shows that I haven't seen in tributes so far was when Dolly Parton made her first appearance. Her repartee with Johnny (whether scripted in advance or not) was hilarious and seemed ad lib.