My Friend Bill Page

I found out I lost another friend today. When Bill Page was in the news department at KBOA in Kennett, he routinely told me how happy he was. He was being paid a pretty nice salary and in return, Bill gave them his heart and soul. During the tornados that touched down in Caruthersville, Bill did a 36 hour shift. He thought it was what newsmen did. Shortly after that, he was fired for "budgetary reasons". He was heartbroken and emailed me to say so. (See a previous post)He decided to become a police dispatcher and emailed me a couple of weeks ago to tell me how much he liked his new job, he missed radio. I only met Bill twice. Once at the MBA in Kansas City (he won a bunch of times) and once in Kennett at the station. He died yesterday. Whatever the cause was, Bill died of a broken heart more than anything else. It immediately reminded me of the story about Coach "Bear" Bryant of Alabama, who coached the tide forever and finally when he retired, he died. Bill was a professional newsman. I think he would like to have been known like that.
Here is the announcement of Bill's death in the local paper.