House Resolution 67

A RESOLUTION COMMENDING AND CONGRATULATING RETIRED WLBT-CHANNEL 3 WEATHERMAN WOODIE ASSAF ON THE OCCASION OF HIS 90TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION.

WHEREAS, former WLBT-Channel 3 Weatherman Woodie Assaf will celebrate his 90th birthday along with his wife, Ruby, and family members on March 15, 2007, at their home in Raymond, Mississippi; and

WHEREAS, born March 15, 1917, in McComb, Mississippi, to Lebanese immigrants, Ellis and Esma Assaf, Woodie, a former radio announcer, arrived at WLBT television station in 1953, helping to invent the budding TV medium in Jackson, Mississippi, and came to symbolize the "golden era" of early television in the Capitol City; and

WHEREAS, married to Ruby Nickey on February 6, 1943, and to their union two children were born and nurtured: Debbie Hartzog and Deenie Grubbs, both of Madison, Mississippi; and

WHEREAS, by the time Woodie left WLBT in 2001, he had been the weatherman at the same TV station longer than any other TV weatherman in the nation, a record-setting 48 years; and

WHEREAS, two years before he left, The Clarion-Ledger readers voted him the most popular TV personality of the millennium in Mississippi; and

WHEREAS, his appealing warmth made him an ideal emcee for many charitable events in Jackson and Central Mississippi, running the gamut from tobacco-spitting contests in Raleigh to the local Easter Seal Telethon which he came to symbolize; and

WHEREAS, a brief biography of Woodie:

· Early jobs: Paper boy, golf caddy;

· Education: McComb High School, Southwest Junior College, Louisiana State University, Columbia Radio College in Chicago, Illinois;

· First radio job: Disc jockey, newsman, weatherman and sportscaster at WSKB (later, WHNY) in McComb, 1937;

· Military service: Army training officer, World War II;

· Subsequent radio jobs: WQBC, Vicksburg; WJDX, Jackson;

· First TV job: Selling ads, doing live commercials, reporting news, weather and sports for WLBT, starting December 20, 1953;

· Last weather broadcast for WLBT: Noon, Friday, August 3, 2001; and

WHEREAS, it is the policy of the House of Representatives to recognize and commend such a landmark event as the 90th birthday of a very well-known and civic-minded Mississippian, Woodie Assaf: NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, That we do hereby commend and extend warmest wishes to retired WLBT-Channel 3 Weatherman Woodie Assaf on the occasion of his 90th birthday.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be furnished to Mr. Assaf, to WLBT-Channel 3 and to the members of the Capitol Press Corps.