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When Fred Rogers walked through the door of the yellow-brown house on the street corner on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, he entered the lives of so many families around the country — but much of it wouldn’t have happened without his real-life family.
Through 895 episodes that aired nationally from 1968 through 2001, the unlikely star, who died of stomach cancer in 2003, reached out to an audience of young viewers on their level, winning them over by his relatable routines of changing into his sweater-and-sneakers outfit, feeding his tankful of fish and going out in his community to meet with friends and neighbors. He also whisked viewers into their imaginations by traveling via trolley to the Neighborhood of Make Believe, where no topic was off-limits, as tackled by hand puppets like Daniel Tiger, King Friday XIII, Lady Elaine Fairchilde, Henrietta Pussycat, X the Owl, and more friends.
Both kid-friendly universes were the result of Rogers’ upbringing in the small town of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, a tight-knit community about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh.
“Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, the layout of it, and the doctor and the baker and the dentist were all in this small town of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, along with the trollies,” David Newell, who played Mr. McFeely on the show, told USA Today in 2003. “He was using it as a symbol to tell stories, a touchstone. That’s how the trollies became part of the neighborhood and how Trolly became a character.”
And that wasn’t the only element of his childhood that showed up on his children’s show. Here’s how his own family inspired many of the Neighborhood elements:
His family environment led to the creation of Daniel Tiger
When Nicholas Ma’s documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor came out in 2018, Roger’s widow, Joanne Rogers, revealed elements of her previously private life with Fred. She noted that his favorite character from the Neighborhood of Make Believe was Daniel Tiger because it was a way for Fred to express the feelings that were suppressed in his own childhood family.
In fact, Joanne and Fred bonded over the fact they weren’t encouraged to express their emotions in their families growing up — and she believes Daniel Tiger was a way to release those bottled up emotions, which both of them carried into adulthood.
“Fred was a very sensitive person, and tears were available to him. I used to say, ‘You’re my liberated man, and I think it’s just wonderful’… We never got mad at each other that much — that we could express well,” Joanne told the L.A. Times. “We just got quiet. Both of us handled it that way, and that’s not the best way. It’s good to yell sometimes.”
That persona is exactly reflected in his alter ego of Daniel Tiger, who is described as having “a gentle vulnerability… He is shy, yet he is able to talk openly about his feelings and concerns when his caring friends give him loving support and help him feel more confident.”
Mister Rogers’ mom knit all his famous sweaters
While expressing his feelings at home was a challenge, that didn’t mean Rogers wasn’t loved. Growing up as an only child until the age of 11 when his parents adopted a baby girl, Rogers knew that his parents showed their love in other ways.
Proof of that comes from the fact that every single one of his trademark knit cardigans were handmade by his mother, Nancy McFeely Rogers, as he showed the viewers in an episode.
“This is a picture of my mother. She knits the sweaters that I wear when we have our television visits. I just wanted you to see her picture and to look very carefully at the beautiful work that she does with her knitting,” he said while the camera zoomed in on a photo of his mother and then close-ups of several sweaters. “That’s one of the ways that she has of saying that she loves somebody. She uses needle, yarn and her own hands to knit the sweaters. When I put on one of these sweaters, it helps me to think of my mother. I guess that’s the best thing about things — it reminds you of people.”
Now one of the red cardigans is officially part of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
READ MORE: Fred Rogers Took a Stand Against Racial Inequality When He Invited a Black Character to Join Him in a Pool
The delivery man, Mr. McFeely, was named after Mister Rogers’ grandfather
While Rogers grew to have an affection for his hometown, his childhood wasn’t always easy. According to the Fred Rogers Center, he was “overweight, somewhat shy, and introverted” and often had to stay inside because of his childhood asthma, leading to a feeling of isolation.
It was his maternal grandfather who gave him the boost of confidence he needed by telling him things like, “Freddie, you make my day very special.” But it was another phrase that Rogers remembered from his grandfather, “I like you just the way you are,” which became one of Mister Rogers’ most essential phrases and lessons for young children.
To honor him, Rogers named the “Speedy Delivery” man Mr. McFeely after his grandfather — and was one of the only characters in the “real” neighborhood to not use his real name.
READ MORE: How Mister Rogers Helped Heal the Nation After September 11
His wife and kids appeared on the show
In another nod to his honest approach, Rogers made clear on the show that the house wasn’t his real home — and even brought his wife and sons, James and John, onto the show several times.
When his kids were still young, the entire family came on for a portrait. The photographer had them pose around the piano as they sang “It’s Such a Good Feeling” together and then had them feed the fish together.
In a 1971 episode, James came on to show his dad how to properly make a paper hat out of newspaper — and two decades later, James came back with his son, as Rogers showed his toddler grandson how to play with the trolley.
When it came to parenting and handling youngsters, Joanne said, “He had a patience the likes of which I greatly admired but couldn’t emulate.”
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