MONTPELIER, Vt. - Bob Keeshan spent a lifetime as Captain Kangaroo, welcoming millions of children into his television family.
It was a menagerie, with Mr. Moose, Dancing Bear, Miss Frog and Bunny Rabbit.
And there were the inanimate objects that came to life: Grandfather Clock and the Magic Drawing Board.
But there was no mistaking who the gentle father figure was: the walrus-mustachioed captain himself.
Keeshan, who lived in Hartford, Vt., died Friday of a long illness at a hospital in Windsor, his family said. He was 76.
"Our father, grandfather and friend was as passionate for his family as he was for America's children," according to a statement issued by his family, including his son and two daughters. "He was largely a private man living an often public life as an advocate for all that our nation's children deserve."
Picked by Mr. 50s.