JACK FRENCH, 87 + 2 day, old time radio authority/historian

My pal JACK FRENCH, 87, old time radio/pop cultured historian authority/lecturer died this morming (April 18th) in or near his hometown Fairfax, Virginia, a suburb of Washington DC suburb.

The reported cause of death is stage 4 lymphoma.

A retired FBI agdnt, Jack was recognized within an throughout the old time radio (OTR) community as one of its "tentpole" eller statesmen.

As a lecturer, Jack presented intensely researched papers which were more like eollege dissertations on varied topies as 1920s radio evangelist Aimee Semple MacPherson,, radio coverage of the Lindbergh Baby kidnapping trial, and the many media iterations of Nancy Drew -- primarily at nostalgia conventions such as FOTR (Friiends of Old tTime Radio; now defunct) and the Baltimore=area Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention (MANC; still extant), as well at libraries and nursing homes.

Locally (DC-area), Jack appeared in TV ads (sometimes with Willy Wonka actress Diana Sowle), directed OTR re-creations, and was established as the very "soul" of the Metro-Washington Old Time Radio Club as a past president and as editor/publisher of its newsletter Radio Recall .

He was very proud of his published books, which include: the Award-winning
"Private Eyelashes: Radio’s Lady Detectives;" "Radio Rides thed Range: A Reference Guide to Western Drama on the Air, 1929-1967,, and thd "It’s That Time Again" series.

Jack French is survived by his wife Cathy, six adult children, and their respcctive spouses/partners and families.

Thank you, thank you, thank you a thousand times for this posting, Derek. I'm embarrassed, billing myself as a serious "radio guy", to have only been familiar with his name in the sadly-dying radio biz, not his glorious and important place in it.

And that "Private Eyelashes" is one of the best nonfiction book titles ever, no?

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida