Art Linkletter*

Born Arthur Gordon Kelly in 1912 in Moosejaw, Saskatchewan, Canada, Art Linkletter was abandoned at birth and later adopted by the Linkletter family. His adopted father was a part-time shoemaker and itinerant Baptist minister. They moved to California when Linkletter was age 3. Their life was religious, strict, and poor.

In his youth, Linkletter joined the YMCA to get exercise and participate in outdoor activities. Soon, he worked for the Y as a switchboard operator and as a towel boy. He graduated from high school when he was only 16 and spent a year hitchhiking and riding freight trains across the country. While visiting nearly every state, he worked as a farm hand, typist, busboy, meat packer, and Wall Street coupon clerk. He even crewed on a ship that took him to Buenos Aires. Looking back on those memories, he said, "I learned basic self-reliance that year, and I think that's the greatest gift a person can have."

Linkletter enrolled in California's San Diego State College, intending to become an English teacher. He earned his college expenses by holding a variety of jobs. During his senior year, he became a radio announcer for the local CBS radio station. He stayed on with the station following graduation and worked on a show that launched his career, "The Man on the Street."

After that came his best-known shows: People Are Funny, an NBC radio and television that aired from 1954 to 1961, and House Party, a radio program that was launched by CBS Radio in in 1944 and that became a daytime television variety program which aired from 1952 to 1970. His business interests grew to include Vandeburg-Linkletter (an entertainment firm) and Linkletter Enterprises, which included real estate, construction, and merchandising.

Linkletter was a close friend of President Richard Nixon and advised three presidential commissions on drug abuse, English education, and physical education. The father of five children, Linkletter saw his life take a sad turn when his daughter, Diane, died as a result of experimenting with LSD. He joined the crusade against drugs and talked with thousands of students about drug abuse. He considered his work in this area, including his book, Drugs at My Doorstep, to be his most important contribution to society.

Linkletter received 17 honorary doctorates and wrote 27 books, of which the most famous were Kids Say the Darndest Things and Old Age Is Not for Sissies. Following those, he published How to Make Your Child into a Human Being.

Linkletter called his Horatio Alger Award "the Good Housekeeping seal of approval on my life. The members of the Horatio Alger Association have passed a test in life that many people can't pass." Linkletter's favorite quote was from John Wooden, who said, "Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way that things turn out."