Ron Stone (1936-2008)

It's been a sad few months for those of us who grew up on local TV: Last summer, KTRK's Marvin Zindler died of pancreatic cancer, and today we heard that KPRC veteran Ron Stone has died at the age of 72. Stone, who spent more than 30 years on the air in Houston, also lost a battle with cancer.

Stone anchored at KHOU before he moved to KPRC, where he manned the desk from 1972 to 1992. As sources told the Chronicle, he was known as much for his professionalism as his friendly delivery: Stone ended every newscast with "That's our news. Good night, neighbor." Colleagues, as you'd expect, are full of praise: "As a writer, as an intellect, I've never worked with anybody finer. He really understood news. He was the consummate newsman," former co-anchor Jan Carson told Channel 2. Ron Franklin, an ex-KPRC sports director, remembered Stone's way with words: "When it came to writing, there was nobody better. When you heard that typewriter singing away in his office, you didn't dare go in there and bother him cause he was creating what I thought was greatness. And it was, whether it was the kicker, whether it was the lead story, whether it was an editorial he wanted to write, it was right on."

And then there was the funny side:

Stone was serious about his work, but he could also reveal a sublime sense of humor, both on camera and off.

Like the time he brought on Wilma the Weather Chicken to test whether her forecast was more accurate than weatherman Doug Johnson's. Wilma did not cooperate.

"Are you frightened of the chicken?" Stone said to Johnson on the air.

"No, but the chicken is frightened of me," Johnson replied.

"No, she's not," Stone said.

"Get her off my seat. Let her sit on Worrell's seat," Johnson said.

"The thing promptly flew up into the rafters. We had to hire somebody two to three days later to come get the chicken -- some chicken expert that does that sort of work," Johnson said. "He could always manipulate me into conversations. And I didn't know I was being manipulated and it was always a conversation pit that I was going to pay the price for."

Stone, of course, did a lot of other things: On TV, he hosted the venerable The Eyes of Texas, which aired for 30 years and racked up buckets of awards; off the air, he fought renal cell carcinoma — and he won for a while, becoming a motivational speaker based on his experience as a cancer survivor. Stone and his son also started Stonefilms of Texas, a TV production company based in Houston. (He even tolerated appearing in a promo with Ernest P. Worrell, which you can see again thanks to the magic of YouTube.)

There's no word yet on a memorial service, but it's clear that Stone's influence in Houston won't be forgotten anytime soon. "[Stone] set the standard," KTRK anchor Dave Ward told the Chronicle. "He would say 'Good night, neighbor,' and people felt as if he was their neighbor. There was nothing pretentious about him."