Died Today (September 25th): Andy Williams (1927–2012)

Born: December 3, 1927 in Wall Lake, Iowa, USA
Died: September 25, 2012 (age 84) in Branson, Missouri, USA

[Williams, an ultra-conservative Republican, replying to a question about US President Barack Obama] Don’t like him at all. I think he wants to create a socialist country. The people he associates with are very left-wing. One is registered as a Communist [a rumor at the time that turned out be false]. Obama is following Marxist theory. He’s taken over the banks and the car industry. He wants the country to fail.

[on his support of ex-wife Claudine Longet after she shot to death her lover, skier Spider Sabich, in 1976] I had to be there for her. She is the mother of my children. And we never stopped being friends. I still accept her story that the shooting was accidental. Bing Crosby’s wife once told me that she was amazed that I had taken so much trouble to help Claudine after we divorced. I said that anybody would have done the same thing, and she said, “Bing wouldn’t.” I think she meant that Bing was a very rigid guy, and once you had screwed up, you were off his list. Well, that’s not the kind of guy I am.