An old friend died yesterday.

Wow....Thurl Ravenscroft's gone. At the ripe old age of 91, no less. Its safe to say he had a hell of a run.

Sure, the connection that he and I had was a little one-sided, and I don't think ol' Thurl would understand quite what his presence was in my life. Indeed, as a small child, the sound of his voice would make me smile and feel happy. Even as some people grew out of childish things, it would take only his voice cropping up somewhere. I even have very fond memories of the fierce yet smiling face I always associated with his smooth, deep voice. Ah yes, those were simple, honest, innocent times.

Unknown to many people, he was a guy who could really sing and managed to get backup gigs with some of the major bands of the day. He turned one, seemingly innocuous engagement into a career of sorts but even then, he kept himself busy with other tasks. Even more, he always seemed to "be there"; almost timeless, in fact. Lots of things changed over the course of the years he held that one small job. Now that he's gone, I'll never be able to look at the image of that face because the voice just won't be the same.

What's that, you say? Never heard of Thurl? Really? I bet you have and just didn't know it. Yep, I'd bet almost any money that if you heard him, you'd know exactly who he was. Even if you couldn't figure out what his little job was...that little job he got in the 1950's which turned into his career.

Well, for over 50 years Thurl Ravenscroft was the voice of Tony the Tiger.

Rest In Peace, Thurl. You'll be hard to replace.

(I think I'm gonna enjoy a bowl of Frosted Flakes for my Saturday breakfast.)