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This Isn’t Our Last Love Letter 

   
Dear Don Don,
 
Way back in 92

I walked into the room and knew

Never felt this way before

I shook your hand while gazing into your eyes

And the feeling grew

As I took a seat I knew

A love that would have my heart

Forever

I knew

Way back in 92


They say love at first sight doesn’t always last or isn’t true

We were the exception to that rule

Our love had no where to hide

A spark set fire

As if this is how the universe started


I never doubted our love or what we could do

Together we grew

Forming a bond everlasting

That became our glue

My euphoria was YOU

I’m eternally grateful for the love and life we shared

For how fortunate we were :

“to have and to hold
through sickness and in health
Til death do us part”

Until we are together again

This isn’t our last love letter

I love you with all my heart and soul

Yours forever,

Deirdre  (Mrs. Hank Snow)

I’m fortunate to have fallen in love with, marry and make a life with the sharpest, coolest, funniest, most rare, bad ass, tender loving, loyal man on the planet, my husband Don Imus.


A True American Hero

 

I don’t know why it has been so hard for me to write about my dear friend Don Imus.

I certainly know what he meant to me, my family, my charity, my hospital and the millions of fans that listened and loved him for so many years.


I keep reading all the beautiful condolences that people are writing about how much a part of their lives were effected by listening to him over the years.

But what most people don’t talk enough about is what he did for all of us.

 

In every sense of the word, he was an American Hero. His work with children with so many different illnesses and his dedication to their future was unmatched by anyone I have ever known or heard about.

Besides raising over $100,000,000 for so many causes, he took care of young people for over 20 years in a state where he could not breathe.  Along with his incredible wife Deirdre, he created a world where children were not defined by their disease. That was a miracle! He was a miracle.

 

I will miss him ever day for the rest of my life.
I was blessed to be a part of his and Deirde’s life.
No one will ever do what he did.
I love you Don Imus - A TRUE AMERICAN HERO

David Jurist

 

IMUS IN THE MORNING

FIRST DAY BACK!

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Imus Ranch Foundation


The Imus Ranch Foundation was formed to donate 100% of all donations previously devoted to The Imus Ranch for Kids with Cancer to various other charities whose work and missions compliment those of the ranch. The initial donation from The Imus Ranch Foundation was awarded to Tackle Kids Cancer, a program of The HackensackUMC Foundation and the New York Giants.

Please send donations to The Imus Ranch Foundation here: 

Imus Ranch
PO Box 1709
Brenham, Texas  77833

A Tribute To Don Imus

Children’s Health Defense joins parents of vaccine-injured children and advocates for health freedom in remembering the life of Don Imus, a media maverick in taking on uncomfortable topics that most in the mainstream press avoid or shut down altogether. His commitment to airing all sides of controversial issues became apparent to the autism community in 2005 and 2006 as the Combating Autism Act (CAA) was being discussed in Congress. The Act, which was ultimately signed into law by George W. Bush in December of 2006, created unprecedented friction among parents of vaccine-injured children and members of Congress; parents insisted that part of the bill’s billion-dollar funding be directed towards environmental causes of autism including vaccines, while most U.S. Senators and Representatives tried to sweep any such connections under the rug.

News Articles

Don Imus, Divisive Radio Shock Jock Pioneer, Dead at 79 - Imus in the Morning host earned legions of fans with boundary-pushing humor, though multiple accusations of racism and sexism followed him throughout his career By Kory Grow RollingStone

Don Imus Leaves a Trail of Way More Than Dust 

Don Imus Was Abrupt, Harsh And A One-Of-A-Kind, Fearless Talent

By Michael Riedel - The one and only time I had a twinge of nerves before appearing on television was when I made my debut in 2011 on “Imus in the Morning” on the Fox Business Channel. I’d been listening to Don Imus, who died Friday at 79, since the 1990s as an antidote the serious (bordering on the pompous) hosts on National Public Radio. I always thought it would be fun to join Imus and his gang — news anchor Charles McCord, producer Bernard McGuirk, comedian Rob Bartlett — in the studio, flinging insults back and forth at one another. And now I had my chance. I was invited on to discuss to discuss “Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark,” the catastrophic Broadway musical that injured cast members daily. 

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2:05AM

Charles Berry, Jr.

Chuck Berry’s music has transcended generations. He earns respect to this day because he was truly an entertainer.  Berry, also known as “The Father of Rock & Roll," gained success by watching the audience’s reaction and playing accordingly, putting his listeners’ amusement above all else.  For this reason, tunes like “Johnny B. Goode,” “Maybellene” and “Memphis” have become anthems to an integrated American youth and popular culture.  Berry is a musical icon who established rock and roll as a musical form and brought the worlds of black and white together in song.  Born in St. Louis on October 18, 1926 Berry had many influences on his life that shaped his musical style.  He emulated the smooth vocal clarity of his idol, Nat King Cole, while playing blues songs from bands like Muddy Waters.  For his first stage performance, Berry chose to sing a Jay McShann song called “Confessin’ the Blues.”  It was at his high school’s student musical performance, when the blues was well-liked but not considered appropriate for such an event.  He got a thunderous applause for his daring choice, and from then on, Berry had to be onstage.

Berry took up the guitar after that, inspired by his partner in the school production.  He found that if he learned rhythm changes and blues chords, he could play most of the popular songs on the radio at the time.  His friend, Ira Harris, showed him techniques on the guitar that would become the foundation of Berry’s original sound.  Then in 1952, he began playing guitar and singing in a club band whose song list ranged from blues to ballads to calypso to country.  Berry was becoming an accomplished showman, incorporating gestures and facial expressions to go with the lyrics.  It was in 1953 that Chuck Berry joined the Sir John’s Trio (eventually renamed the Chuck Berry Combo), which played the popular Cosmopolitan Club in St. Louis.  Country-western music was big at the time, so Berry decided to use some of the riffs and create his own unique hillbilly sound.  The black audience thought he was crazy at first, but couldn’t resist trying to dance along with it.  Since country was popular with white people, they began to come to the shows, and the audience was at some points almost 40 percent white.  Berry’s stage show antics were getting attention, but the other band members did their parts as well.  In his own words: “I would slur my strings to make a passage that Johnnie (Johnson) could not produce with piano keys but the answer would be so close that he would get a tremendous ovation.  His answer would sound similar to some that Jerry Lee Lewis’s fingers later began to flay.”

Later in 1955, Berry went on a road trip to Chicago, where he chanced upon a club where his idol, Muddy Waters, was performing. He arrived late and only heard the last song, but when it was over he got the attention of Waters and asked him who to see about making a record.  Waters replied, “Yeah, Chess Records over on Forty-seventh and Cottage.”  Berry went there on Monday and discovered it was a blues label where greats like Howlin’ Wolf and Bo Diddley recorded. He didn’t have any tapes to show, but Chess was willing to listen if he brought some back from St. Louis.  So Berry went home and recorded some originals, including the would-be “Maybellene,” then called “Ida May,” and drove back to Chicago later that week to audition.  Much to Berry’s surprise, it was that hillbilly number that caught Chess’ attention.  Berry was signed to Chess Records and in the summer of 1955, “Maybellene” reached #5 on the Pop Charts and #1 on the R&B Charts.  Through Chuck Berry, Chess Records moved from the R&B genre into the mainstream and Berry himself was on his way to stardom.

Berry continued his success with such hits as “Brown-Eyed Man,” “Too Much Monkey Business,” “Memphis,” “Roll Over, Beethoven!” and “Johnny B. Goode.”  “Johnny B. Goode” is Berry’s masterpiece, as it brought together all the elements of Berry’s unique musical sound.  It cemented his place in rock history and led to fame in the 1950s. His popularity garnered him television and movie appearances and he toured frequently.  Berry’s incredible success is due to his ability to articulate the concerns and attitudes of his audience in his music.  At the height of his success, Berry was a 30-year-old black man singing to a mostly white, teenage audience. Dubbed the “Eternal Teenager,” Chuck Berry’s knowledge of the pop market made it possible for him to break color barriers and play to an integrated audience.  In the 1960s and 1970s, Berry’s music was the inspiration for such groups as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.  Berry had a number of comeback recordings and in 1972 had the first and only #1 Pop Chart hit of his career with “My Ding-A-Ling.  1986 fittingly saw him inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the very first inductee in history.  As a tribute to his pervasiveness in the realm of rock, a clip of “Johnny B. Goode” was chosen played in the Voyager I spacecraft, proving Chuck Berry and his rock legacy are truly out of this world.

Chuck Berry died on March 18th of this year at age 90.  His death prompted an outpouring of support and condolences from fans, fellow musicians, and world leaders – from members of The Rolling Stones and Beatles, to former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. "Chuck" is the first new recording from Chuck Berry in nearly 40 years.  His  last studio album was  “Rock It” (1979). “Chuck” features 8 new Chuck Berry songs and 2 covers. Charles Berry, Jr. is the only son of the late Chuck Berry. Charles toured the world with his father for approx. 15 years and performs on multiple songs featured on the new album.  Charles Jr and his son Charles III perform on several tracks on the album together – giving fans 3 generations of Berry men playing guitar together.