Radio host Don Imus is dead at 79.
The host of Imus in the Morning, Imus died at Baylor Scott and White Medical Center in College Station, Texas, on Friday.
He is survived by Deirdre, his wife of 25 years, daughters Nadine, Ashley, Elizabeth, and Toni, and sons Wyatt and Zachary Don Cates.
“Don loved and adored Deirdre, who unconditionally loved him back, loved spending his time watching Wyatt become a highly skilled, champion rodeo rider and calf roper, and loved and supported Zachary, who first met the Imus family at age 10 when he participated in the Imus Ranch program for kids with cancer, having battled and overcome leukemia, eventually becoming a member of the Imus family and Don and Deirdre’s second son,” the Imus family said in a statement.
Imus was a controversial figure who made a career out of pushing the envelope.
In 1966, Imus enrolled at the Don Martin School of Radio and Television Arts and Sciences in Hollywood but was later thrown out for being uncooperative.
He earned early fame after posing as a National Guard member to prank phone call a local McDonald’s in Sacramento, California. The FCC created a new rule stipulating that all radio DJs identity themselves when they make calls on air.
He became one of the highest-paid radio performers in a career that was riddled with substance abuse. Controversy followed Imus throughout his career, and he was at the center of a national dust-up in 2007 after calling the Rutgers University women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos.”
He courted even more controversy in 2008 after suggesting he wasn’t surprised the NFL suspended Dallas Cowboys cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones because he was black.
Imus was also known for his charity, opening a 4,000-acre ranch outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, that helped children with cancer and children whose siblings had died from sudden infant death syndrome.
A small service for Imus is planned for next week.
