Fred McFeely Rogers

 Fred McFeely Rogers was born on March 20, 1928, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. He was an only child until the age of 11 when his parents, James and Nancy, adopted a baby girl. He studied at Latrobe High School, Rogers enrolled at Dartmouth College, for a year before transferring to Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. Rogers, who'd begun playing the piano at a young age, graduated magna cum laude in 1951 with a degree in music composition.

He earned his divinity degree in 1962, and at his ordination the Presbyterian Church asked him to serve children and families through television. Rogers made his first appearance the following year as Mister Rogers on a Canadian Broadcast System show called Misterogers. The program helped lay the groundwork in its look and approach for Rogers' later show.

Rogers married Joanne, whom he'd met at Rollins, wanted to raise their two young sons. Soon, the Rogers family was back in Pittsburgh, where Rogers launched Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 1966.

Rogers' first job in television came in 1953 when he was hired to work in programming by WQED in Pittsburgh, a recently launched community TV station that was the first of its kind in the country. He was co-producing a new program, The Children's Corner. This allowed Rogers, who'd fallen in love with puppetry as a child, to introduce some of his favorite puppets from his home to his young audience. At the center of the show, of course, was Fred Rogers himself, a Protestant minister who worked as the series' producer, host and head puppeteer. He also wrote the scripts and songs.

"The world is not always a kind place," he said, talking about his show. "That's something all children learn for themselves, whether we want them to or not, but it's something they really need our help to understand."

During its long run, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood attracted well known guests such as Yo-Yo Ma and Wynton Marsalis and earned Rogers several awards for the program's excellence. The honors included four daytime Emmys, a 1997 Lifetime Achievement award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and, in 2002, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1999, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.

In December 2000, he taped his final episode, though PBS aired original programs until August 2001. In December 2002, doctors diagnosed Rogers with stomach cancer. He underwent surgery the following month, but it did little to slow the disease down. On February 27, 2003, with his wife Joanne at his side, Rogers died at his home in Pittsburgh.

source:  https://www.biography.com/performer/fred-rogers