It was a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

"It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood, A beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine? Could you be mine?..." These words were last uttered in the final episode of "Mister. Rogers' Neighborhood" in 2001. Five years ago on Feb. 27, a childhood favorite died after a battle to stomach cancer at the age of 74. He was, and always will be, Mr. Fred McFeely Rogers, our friendly neighbor.

Mr. Rogers was born in 1928 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. In college he studied music composition and in the 1950s was a puppeteer for "The Children's Corner." Many of the characters he created on "The Children's Corner" later appeared in "Neighborhood." He was then ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1963 to help educate families and children through television.

Mr. Rogers' broadcast of "Neighborhood" started as a show on the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. He then came to the United States in 1967 with this programming idea and it first aired in Pittsburg on WQED, a year later PBS picked it up for national broadcasting.

Junior, Jackie Keith said, "From my childhood my memories of Mr. Rogers are that he was a gentle old guy that would change his sweater and shoes at the beginning of the show. He would travel on a trolley to the Neighborhood of Make Believe with puppets and he always wanted to be my neighbor."

Keith's memories of "Neighborhood" are correct. Mr. Rogers would always make sure to take off his jacket to change into one of his 24 hand knit sweaters by his mother and would put on comfortable shoes to invite a more welcoming atmosphere. This laid back atmosphere was to slow down the face paced world of cartoons.

Junior, Katherine Rogers said "The opening song was my favorite part of the show. I felt like my grandfather was singing to me. In fact, I would tell people he was my grandfather since we had the same last name. Unfortunately they would never believe me."