"King of the Wild Frontier"

1924-2010

Fess Parker passed away on Thursday at the age of 84.

I grew up on reruns of "Daniel Boone" and me and my sister were constantly pretending to be Daniel Boone and "Mango" a.k.a. Mingo (Hey, we were 5 and 7--we missed some of the more particular subtleties of pronunciation)

Later on we were Davy Crockett and George on our makeshift river boat.

Naturally, since I was the oldest, I always got to play Fess' role, and we built up quite a friendship him and I.

I'll never forget how excited we were the day Dad pulled out his old Royal Rangers costumes and Cait and I got to wear buckskin for the first time.

Now, he's passed on and I've been missing something ever since. One of the constants in my life is gone, and yes, I know that this sounds incredibly melodramatic, but it's real.

R.I.P. Fess Parker