Larry King Passes at Age 87: Now He may Know

   An icon of our country has passed on, this past weekend. I will explain a little.

Larry King became part and parcel of the surging CNN empire back in the 1980s and 1990s. He was a large part of how 24 news networks became what they would, helping the success of this medium developed by media mogul Ted Turner. King must have had work experience back to the Korean War in the 1950s...

 

He was a man of talent and honed skills at interviewing; he was the connector of the who's who in the country and sometimes the greater world.

I saw him in person once, the Sunday after 9/11/2001, when everybody was in a whirl, a funky time of confusion and grief. He was in the chapel halls of church where his wife was a member, my wife, small baby and I were attending there for our first of two years of Sunday service. He looked much smaller in person. He was not a big man, but his television presence was larger than life.

He had married a younger lady who was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and they had two boys together. I learned a little bit about their family through the young missionaries who ate at my apartment. His young sons would put on a show for them. The mother, King's seventh wife, was an entertainer in her own right, and was the older sister of a BYU quarterback in the early 2000s, Bret Engemann.

I think based on that church connection King was able to interview former Church president and prophet of the faith, Gordan B. Hinckley, in 1998. That was a big deal to many of us members. So was the record breaking home run of Mark McGwire, that cut in during the interview on CNN.

King told our prophet that he was agnostic and mostly secular, but President Hinckley gave a solid interview and was understanding of King's lack of faith.

Larry King, famous for his suspenders and the decades of interviews. A legend in broadcasting, for sure.

May he rest in peace.

And may he now know if the God in Heaven, or heaven itself, is a thing or not.

Thanks for your humanity, humility, and professional manner, cordiality, candor, and curiosity.