I heard the news of the recent passing of Gary Pitts from my co-worker Ms Melissa. And a call and a visit to Gary’s wife, Shirley Swank Pitts….the Queen of AM Radio…is most definitely in order. But honestly, I’m no good at that. Not an excuse, just had my fill of it by the time I was 24, in losing my own people, that the necessary communication of love and respect still gets caught in my gullet, and I rely on this to do the talking.
It is hard to tell the story of my relationship with Gary without leading with The Queen because, as always, she is kinda the linchpin in all of this. The final version of the radio show featured “Hi Shirley” because mamma didn’t raise no fool…you lead with your strengths…and on AM 1050 Shirley is a strength….they just didn’t know it til she earned her chops with us. But that is a different story for a different day. Meeting and getting to know Gary was easy. He was her lifetime “supporting cast”…like my wife has been for me…and that is a unique role to embrace.
When this last version of the show evolved to its wheelhouse, Gary Pitts was in it pretty deep. Not only did Shirley own the first 15 minutes of EVERY show, but she also had Gary play her personal intro music immediately after her show intro, which was arranged, performed, and recorded by our own music director, Guitar Mike (McCabe). And it was about an 80/20 proposition as to whether or not you would hear any music after she opened her segment with “Hit It”. And that was half the fun. Gary became “The Engineer” by osmosis. He was the more technical of the two, and he loved to prop up his wife so she could ooze personality…and get a few licks in of his own…where he could.
I recall one time I had owed The Queen a call back and rang her up, and he answered the phone… which was rare!!! We ended up bullshitting for about 15 minutes, and it had nothing to do with radio or Shirley…which was cool because circumstances usually pushed our conversations in the obvious direction, but this was just two dudes talkin. My in-home visits were great because you really just got to hang with him. Shirley was bouncing off the walls, doing Shirley things, Gary, sittin at the dining room table with me, leanin on his cane and smilin. And always stayed perfectly neutral when she and I would chirp about me giving her her big break back on Instant Replay.
Rest in peace to The Engineer. You married the love of your life and willingly shared her with Kenosha. You were the ultimate partner, equal parts strength and support, and always the genuine article. Thank you for the huge add you were to those important 2 hours of my week every Wednesday. Farewell and godspeed to a valued member of the Kenosha Sports Extra family of Dons.