The suburban New York town where I grew up and still live -- Mount Vernon -- has been home to a pretty good number of celebrities for a city its size.
It was the birthplace of writer E.B. White, author of the children's classic Charlotte's Web. Actors Art Carney and Denzel Washington also hail from Mount Vernon. Eternal teenager Dick Clark is from my town. Sports figures like basketball's Gus Hall and baseball's Kenny Singleton (he was a high school classmate) are from Mount Vernon. Others who have lived here include jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal, Cosby co-star Felicia Rashad and biz guru Seth Godin, with whom I used to play pinball. Rock musicians like Roy Blumenfeld of the legendary Blues Project, as well as more contemporary names like Heavy D also come from this city of 70,000.
We recently lost one of our hometown heroes, pro-wrestler Captain Lou Albano. I didn't know Captain Lou. I may have met him a long time ago at a local political or charity thing. I know his younger brother George, who is a well-respected and much-loved principal at an elementary school in town that's won all sorts of awards for excellence. George is a nice, caring and giving person. I've had the privilege of working with him over the years on local school board activities.
So as I was reading some of the obits on Captain Lou, it didn't surprise me that the kooky-looking, blustery big guy that was Captain Lou to the world was just the opposite in his private life... a family-first person, eager to help others whenever he could. He came from a good family, whose values stayed with him.
It just serves as a reminder that you can't always a judge a book by its cover.
Condolences to George and the Albano family. Mount Vernon will always be proud of Captain Lou.



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