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Joanne Rogers, a concert duo pianist and wife of the late Fred Rogers, died at her Squirrel Hill home Thursday at age 92 surrounded by family and friends.
Known for a boisterous laugh, Joanne Rogers became the face of her husband’s legacy after his death in 2003, appearing on news programs and late-night talk shows in support of books and documentaries about Mister Rogers and his PBS program, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
“She wasn’t going for the spotlight but she was very happy to respond to the national and worldwide interest in what Fred was offering to the world,” said Hedda Sharapan, a consultant to Fred Rogers Productions and a senior fellow at the Fred Rogers Center in Latrobe. “She gave the world another sense of who Fred was through her humor and her humorous stories about him.”