Senate Resolution 21

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

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, a former radio announcer, Woodie 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, 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;

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:

· Born March 15, 1917;

· Native of McComb, Mississippi;

· Parents, Ellis and Esma Assaf, immigrants from Lebanon;

· Married on February 6, 1943, to Ruby Nickey of McComb;

· Children, Debbie Hartzog and Dennie Grubbs, both of Madison, Mississippi;

· 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 with great pride that we recognize this landmark event in the life of a very well-known and civic-minded Mississippian:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, That we do hereby commend and extend the best wishes of the Mississippi Senate to retired WLBT-Channel 3 Weatherman Woodie Assaf on the occasion of his 90th birthday.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That this resolution be presented to Woodie and be made available to Channel 3 and the Capitol Press Corps.