I wish the wonderful patron saint of Chicago and America had lived to see Obama elected. The author-radio host-actor-activist and national treasure has died. "My epitaph? My epitaph will be 'Curiosity did not kill this cat,'" he once said. Studs died Friday afternoon in his home on the North Side. At his bedside was a copy of his latest book, P.S. Further Thoughts From a Lifetime of Listening, scheduled for release this month. He was 96 years old. Studs Terkel was part of a great Chicago literary tradition that stretched from Theodore Dreiser to Richard Wright to Nelson Algren to Mike Royko, as Mayor Richard M. Daley said.
In his many books, Studs captured the eloquence of the common men and women whose hard work and strong values built the America we enjoy today. He was also an excellent interviewer, and his WFMT radio show was an important part of Chicago's cultural landscape for more than 40 years."
Beset in recent years by a variety of ailments and the woes of age, which included being virtually deaf, Terkel's health took a turn for the worse when he suffered a fall in his home a few weeks ago.
