too many people we leave behind. the famous and the not so famous. some known to all of us, some known only to their loved ones. to all of them, we'll be saying hail and farewell. ♪ >> cowan: from pioneers to trailblazers on the ground, to legends of rock and roll. ♪ >> cowan: we lost so many this year, and that's before we count those most of us didn't know. this morning we say good-bye to those who brightened our lives during a year that was otherwise so very, very dark. ♪ >> cowan: what better time, what better year, for our story on the best-laid plans. with so much up in the air, susan spencer will tell us planning ahead may never be the same. >> reporter: it's almost new year's, but if you've got no plans, well, you've got plenty of company. >> if you look at the calendar and you're dispairing that it doesn't have the activities you enjoy, that you once looked forward to, i can imagine that would be a real struggle. >> reporter: not making plans? why every day is blursday, later on "sunday morning." >> cowan: for all of its faults, 2020 wasn't all bad. we just had to look a little harder to find the good. which our david pogue has been doing. >> reporter: 2020was a year most of us would like to forget. but buried in the depressing headlines, there were actually a few nuggets of good news. >> liftoff. go nasa, go spacex. >> cowan: coming up on sunday morning -- >> it looks amazing... >> cowan: from zooming to space to zooming with family. the bright spots of 2020, brut to yobrought to you by scie and technology. >> cowan: our dr. jon lapook pays tribute to those who fought on the front line. michelle miller reminds us behind every number is a name. mo rocca talks about sy sperling, and we'll be looking back at this year gone by in all of its complexity, all on this sunday morning, december 27, 2020. we'll be back in a moment. >> cowan: if there is one lesson we all learned in 2020, is that there is real truth behind a line adapted from a poem by robert berns: "the best laid plans of miz mice and men often go arequire." awry." >> reporter: karina lopez leaves nothing to chance, and we mean nothing. >> i'm a planner by nature. one thing we love to do with our friends is our friendsgiving. i would plan every last detail, down to what everyone would be wearing, what color scheme. >> reporter: that's planning. >> i know. >> reporter: hardly a surprise, then, that lopez is a professional wedding planner. she is based near buffalo, new york, and guess who's wedding she has been planning her whole life. how long had you been dreaming of your own wedding? >> probably since i was literally a little girl. maybe i was five years old. >> reporter: lopez and her fiance, set their sights on a pull out all of the stops, multi-affair with 200 guests. >> we were going to kick off the weekend with a welcome party on the friday evening. saturday was going to be breakfast and lunch, and then the wedding at night, and a great brunch farewell on that sunday. >> reporter: wow! >> yes. >> reporter: how did it go? >> it didn't. something called covid hit and we had to postpone. >> reporter: and covid hit both would-be newlyweds hard. >> i had never been that sick in my life. it felt like i had gotten run over by a car, and i had the worst cough i've ever had in my life. >> reporter: forget that wedding. >> i think i had a breakdown in bed, while i was sick with covid. and i just started hysterically crying. i just knew it wasn't going to happen. and immediately after i felt guilty for crying about it because people were dealing with serious issues. >> reporter: there seems to be this big cloud of uncertainty that sits over everything. what is the impact of that over time? >> i think uncertainty can breed anxiety in a lot of people. >> reporter: psychiatrist pavan madan says an inability to plan weighs heavily on his patients these days. he works in the university town of davis, california, where a lot of students find their futures on hold. >> they've gone back nd moved in with their family, which was unexpected and unusual for their stage in life. >> reporter: dr. madan's advice is to put big dreams aside for now, and focus, instead, on the small, more manageable details of daily life. so you should get up and night and have breakfast at 9:00, just to structure back? >> i use more of a collaborator approach, just refocusing in a way that makes people think about what is important for them, and how they would like their structure to be. >> reporter: so when was the last time you put something on your calendar and honestly felt like it would happen? never mind a wedding, how about a dental appointment? if you're like me, your days lately are looking a lot like this. a lot of people, you know, what they see on the calendar, sort of defines who they are? >> in a way, yeah. we are what we do, yeah. >> reporter: we need plans, says university of delaware psychology professor philip gable, who sees them as essential to happiness. so you're a fan of plans? [laughter] >> i am. i am. yeah, they give us direction. they give us hope. >> reporter: and when we can't plan, time itself can seem to crawl. >> so when people are experiencing negative feelings, then they will experience time continuing to drag. >> reporter: so this accounts for people not being able to literally remember what day it is? >> also, we've lost a lot of our rhythm. a lot of the patterns that separate the weekend from the weekday creates that blursday we might be experiencing. >> reporter: blursday? >> the sense it is all one day, yes. >> reporter: indeed, blursday may be the most popular day on the pandemic calendar. as you look at blursday, where exactly in the week does it fall? >> it could be tomorrow; it could have been yesterday. >> reporter: are we hard-wired to look ahead all the time? >> we are. human beings are unique in their ability to think about the future. >> reporter: but harvard psychologist professor ellen langer says something else also is at play. >> so you coined the phrase "illusion of control." can you define that for me? >> it started when i had been at a casino and i had seen people talking to slot machines. it occurred to me they actually thought they could control the outcome. and this is kind of silly. you can't control things that are chance-determined. >> reporter: but that need for control drives us to plan, even today, when so much is unpredictable. professor langer says it is like pushing the closed door button in an elevator. believe it or not, most of those buttons don't actually do anything. they're install only to make us feel better. >> pressing the button takes very little energy, and doing something often feels better than doing nothing. >> reporter: would you recommend we have faith and just keep pushing those buttons? >> i think wholeheartedly i recommend pushing that button, unless it means pushing people out of the way to get to it. >> reporter: so keep pushing and planning, but knowing that these are uncertain times. >> plans are guesses, but what we need to recognize is that if something leads us in a different direction, that could end up even better for us. >> reporter: i just talked to a young woman who had to postpone her giant wedding. concrete plans like that, i think may be a little bit more difficult to get past. >> surely there are advantages of delaying the wedding. you delay it, you have more time to look forward to it. more time to change your mind, if that's the direction in which you want to go. >> reporter: maybe not what karina lopez wants to hear, but in spite of everything, she is optimistic and still planning. >> what do you have to look forward to if you're not going to plan for anything? >> reporter: the alternative would be you're just setting yourself up. >> yes. which is why, perhaps, you do a plan "b" and plan "c" that you know for sure could happen. >> reporter: so the answer to any doubt about planning is to do more planning? >> yes. 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[yelling] >> i can't breathe! >> cowan: sparking protests all around the country. a peaceful protest near the white house...was broken up in june in order to allow president trump to pose outside a church, holding a bible. ♪ >> cowan: we got a bit of normalcy in july when major league baseball finally returned. in front of cardboard cutouts, but it was better than nothing. as if 2020 wasn't hard enough, hurricane laura slammed into the louisiana gulf coast in august, one of 12 named storms to hit the united states this season. september saw the makeup of the highest court in the land change with the death of justice ruth bader ginsburg and president trump's nomination of judge amy coney barrett to replace her. covid hit the oval office in october. president trump was diagnosed, hospitalized, and released all in the waning days of the campaign. in november, of course, we voted. joe biden won. president trump disagreed and tried to overturn the results, both in the courts and in certain state legislatures. mercifully, the year ended with some positive news on covid: the vaccines were finally here. much-needed shots in the arm that will continue far into the new year. mornings were made for better things than rheumatoid arthritis. when considering another treatment, ask about xeljanz... a pill for adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis when methotrexate has not helped enough. xeljanz can help relieve joint pain and swelling, stiffness, and helps stop further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections. before and during treatment, your doctor should check for infections, like tb and do blood tests. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b or c, have flu-like symptoms, or are prone to infections. serious, sometimes fatal infections, cancers including lymphoma, and blood clots have happened. taking a higher than recommended dose of xeljanz for ra may increase risk of death. tears in the stomach or intestines and serious allergic reactions have happened. don't let another morning go by without asking your doctor about the pill first prescribed for ra more than seven years ago. xeljanz. want to sell the best burger add an employee.ode? or ten... then easily and automatically pay your team and file payroll taxes. that means... world domination! or just the west side. run payroll in less than five minutes with intuit quickbooks. special guest flo challenges the hand models to show off the ease of comparing rates with progressive's home quote explorer. international hand model jon-jon gets personal. your wayward pinky is grotesque. then a high stakes patty-cake battle royale ends in triumph. you have the upper hands! it's a race to the lowest rate, and so much more. only on "the upper hands." it'can my mouth hurts.ret?ate, and so much more. almost 50 percent of kids in america get cavities before they're eight. when you choose colgate, you are helping provide dental care and education for children in our community. 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>> no, i can't see you. >> reporter: i'm referring, of course, to zoom video calls, like the one i had with my 92-year-old dad, cleveland lawyer, dick pogue. am i correct you had never used zoom until the lockdown? >> absolutely not. i was amazed. >> reporter: why do you think zoom became the winner of the pandemic? >> i think it is the simplest of getting into the meeting. >> reporter: all of the zoom meetings meant fewer people flying, and all of the closed offices meant fewer people driving. it is not the kind of economy anybody wants, of course, but it did lead to some more good news. for the first time in a century, you could hear birds' songs in the city, you could see fish in the canals of venice, and you could see blue skies in l.a. at one point global greenhouse gas emissions fell 17%, the biggest drop in human history. this is also the year that the plastic pollution problem finally got the world's attention. we've been dumping the equivalent of a truckload's worth of plastic every minute every day. china joined 25 other countries that ban or tax single-use plastic bags. sheila was fed up with the 40 million plastic utensils that restaurants include with takeout orders that nobody uses. if i take it out of the bag and throw it in the trash, that's not single-use plastic. >> that's zero use plastic. >> reporter: she pushed to make those utensils a choice. 2020 was also an astonishing era for space, they landed a spacecraft on an asteroid, and for the first time since the space shuttle retired in 2011, flew american astronauts to the space station on an american spacecraft made by spacex, twice. finally, 2020 ended with the best piece of news science could possibly have offered us: vaccines for the disease that ruined the year in the first place. bill gruber is pfizer's head of vaccine development. >> vaccines typically take years to develop. i mean five, 10 years. how was it possible that this one was developed so fast? >> this was really borne of a great deal of cooperation between academics, industry, and government, to essentially recognize this has the highest priority. one key element is that as opposed to work typically being done in sequence, a great deal of work has been done in parallels. >> reporter: the vaccines hold a promise that this time next year good news will be a lot easier to find, as least at leat that's what my dad thinks. do you have any broader thoughts about the year 2020? >> i'll be glad when 2020 is gone. this was a bad year. but next year is going to be better, much better. ♪ ♪ digital transformation has failed to take off. because it hasn't removed the endless mundane work we all hate. ♪ ♪ automation can solve that by taking on repetitive tasks for us. unleash your potential. uipath. reboot work. that came from me. really. my first idea was "in one quarter of an hour, your savings will tower... over you. figuratively speaking." but that's not catchy, is it? that's not going to swim about in your brain. so i thought, what about... 15 minutes. 15 percent. serendipity. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. >> cowan: few deserve more thanks and praise han our medical professionals, who spent this long and lonely year fighting covid face to face. our dr. jon lapook was one of them. >> this has been a devastating year for health care providers. in a new war against an invisible enemy, the soldiers, my colleagues around the world, from often found themselves fighting without weapons or armor. their best medicine: empathy. as hospitals filled up, doctors and nurses have had to treat patients in unlikely places, from a tent in central park, to a parking lot in nevada. >> nobody who has gone into medicine ever thought they would be providing care in a parking lotment. >> or using refrigerators for the death toll that tops 3,000 in the u.s. alone. p.p.p. was in such short supply, some nurses were forced to wear trash bags, and daily cases have surged to more than 200,000. the toll is written on their faces and heard in their voices. >> you know, i can't talk to a patient without a mask on. i can't touch them without gloves on. you know, they die and they never see our faces. >> the c.d.c. estimates more than 900 health care workers have died from covid, but it is a hard number to track, and it is likely much higher. their deaths are remembered in this twitter account and other makeshift memorials across the country. >> never and my wildest nightmares did i ever think we would see something that would be killing this many people. >> back in april, i spent two weeks helping out on the covid wars at langone health, where i'm a professor of medicine, and saw a microcosm of the professionals across the globe. physicians, nurses, social workers, psychologists, those in food and housekeeping services, those and so many others, all risking their lives to take care of patients in their care. we're doing everything in our power, and we expect you to do the same. wear a mask, maintain physical distance, wab wash your hands, and remember that outdoors is better than indoors. and get a vaccine when it is available. the f.d.a. and trusted public officials, such as dr. anthony fauci has told us no corners were cut. i just got mine last week. of course, researchers will watch out for any unexpected safety concerns that may emerge. last spring we all appreciated the applause at 7:00 each night. 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"lean on me" by bill withers, provided us assurance that tomorrow will be better. ♪ you just call on me, brother, when you need a hand ♪ ♪ we all need somebody to lean on ♪ ♪ i just might have a problem that you'll understand ♪ >> cowan: although bill withers left us at 81, his notes of solace help during a year that wasn't even a month old before grief was already setting in. ♪ call me ♪ ♪ >> cowan: the death of 41-year-old kobe bryant, the l.a. lakers' phenom and his daughter, stunned everyone. his passing created people of all walks of life joining together to both celebrate and to mourn. >> my mama always said life was like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're going to get. >> cowan: covid was the box we always wished we didn't get. >> i have lived a pretty interesting life. >> reporter: but win groowinstongroom, who created ft gump reminded us challenges exist to be overcome. >> mama always said dying was a part of life. >> reporter: you don't have to be rich or smart to be dignified. didignity for black americans remained a struggle. the deaths of george floyd and breonna taylor, to name a few. there was an inequality that wasn't seen until the 1960s. congressman john lewis was still fighting right to the end. >> all of the suffering, all of the pain, the tear gas, it was worth it. if i had to do it all over again, i would march the same way. >> a special report from cbs news, testament of a murdered man. he had dedicated nine years of his life to the war against racism, and now he is dead in battle. >> reporter: after he brother was assassinated by white supremacists, charles evers tried to make change, becoming a mayor. >> it is not for revenge, but to carry on and fight for freedom for all mankind. >> reporter: we lost those who marched alongside dr. martin luther king, too. >> we ask you to help us work for the day when black would not be... >> reporter: he gave the benediction at president obama's inauguration. >> when yellow would be yellow, when red would be red, and when white would embrace what is right. say amen. >> amen. >> reporter: he was the first black american to captain the united states olympic team, his triump triumphent win in the decathalon is still talked about to this day. rock and roll certainly wasn't immune to racism. ♪ >> when i came on the scene, blacks and whites were segregated. >> reporter: little richard couldn't always stay or eat where the white performers did, but his fans were of all colors. ♪ >> the best new artist is... >> reporter: his energy was boundless, and so was his humor. >> me! [applause and cheering] >> i have never received nothing. you all never gave me no grammys, and i've been singing for years. >> what are you afraid of? >> reporter: the black americans that we celebrate, like jackie robinson, thurgood marshall, james brown, surely would have been proud of chadwick boseman. >> that's the reason why you act, you want to be able to actually identify with the characters that you play and explore humanity. >> reporter: gender equality lost some of its super heros, too. helen reddy offered the soundtrack for the fight that she, herself, waged. ♪ i am strong. i am invincible ♪ >> reporter: but there were few champions for women as influential as justice ruth bader ginsburg. >> i do not see myself at all as a legend. >> reporter: in her 27 years on the supreme court, she expanded rights for women, as well as men. small in structure, but a giant for us all. >> i will do this job as long as that i feel that i can do it full steam. ♪ i am woman ♪ i am woman >> reporter: the only thing tougher than justice ginsburg was the cancer that took her at 87. >> for all minorities and for all people it is a never-ending battle to fight against the powers that be to prove our worth and our place. >> reporter: the fight for equality took all forms. aids activist larry was often brash, but affective. he fought tirelessly pressing the government and the public to care more about the gay community, much the way playwright mark crowley did. it took him 50 years to see his portrayal of gay rights, "the boys in the band,band," finally make it to broadway. >> it is just generally about the human spirit. suddenly they aren't just gay people anymore. they're just people. >> reporter: few wrote that story line better than playwright terrence mcnally. he won five tony awards. ♪ on the wheels... >> it is overwhelming. >> reporter: including one for lifetime achievement. >> thank you. ♪ one more day >> reporter: broadway has been dark for months now. ♪ one my town >> reporter: but we pause to give thanks to all of the creators we lost. ♪ that's why i'm here, where i belong ♪ ♪ one more dawn ♪ one more dance ♪ ♪ and one more chance >> reporter: performers couldn't play in front of live audiences this year, and that made us miss their talents all the more. >> when i get to heaven, i'm going to shake god's hands, and i'm going to thank him for more blessings than one man could stand. >> reporter: and especially legends, like folk sinner jon prine. with his nasal, raspy voice, he was often compared to bob dylan, who was also a fan. fan. >> i considered myself a writer, so i thought, why can't i be any character i want to be? >> reporter: in whatever genre, country or pop, the bourbon smooth voice of kenny rogers brought us ballads about gamblers -- >> if a song moves me, i can make it move other people. >> reporter: country music was largely all white. that is until.....charley pride came along. his records were huge sellers. he just won a c.m.a. lifetime achievement award. the music nourished our souls, and few better at that than se cecilia chiang. often called the mother of chinese food in america, her cooking must have been pretty healthy because she lived to be 100. >> i'm what you call a lucky dog. >> reporter: slim jims weren't necessarily healthy. juan adams didn't intend for them to be. but he sure knew how to package them in ways that were pretty hard to forget. artist christo took presentation to new heights. he saw all of the world as a package to be wrapped. ♪ >> reporter: but if you're going to dress up a landmark, nothing summed up a whole city better milton glaser's "i heart new york." he died on his 91st birthday. ♪ i love new york >> reporter: we lost a bit of magic, too, this year, starting with showman roy horn, half of the siegfried and roy duo. they dazzled the las vegas strip for decades. >> he has been outrageous, and now they call us colorful and eccentric. >> reporter: ms. frizzle drove the magic school bus to everybody who delighted. she took kids to space, even inside the human body. >> in just a few moments, we'll be landing in arnold's stomach. thank you for flying digestion airways. >> this is for the myth that if you drink a bunch of diet coke and eat a bunch of mentos, your stomach will explode. >> reporter: he proved that science can answer all sorts of mysteries, like how to get to the moon. kathryn johnson figured that out, calculating just the right trajectory that got astronauts there and back. including alfred warton, one of those who had all of the right stuff. but it was chuck yeager who defined just what that meant. >> we looked at it differently then than we do now. that was your job, and you went ahead and flew it. >> reporter: he made testing the limits his life. >> he was giving me some sort of warning, and it worked out. >> reporter: a world war ii fighter ace and air force general, he was 97. speaking of the sound barrier, few cracked it like rocker eddie van halen. he was a true guitar hero. but he died from cancer at only 65. we lost neil peart to cancer as well. he was to some the van halen of the drums. his highly technical solos were really a thing to behold. ♪ >> i'd like you to meet our charming little drummer via viola smith. >> reporter: she was hailed as the fastest girl drummer in the world. she played her drum kit wearing sequins. ♪ >> reporter: but when it came to percussion, ian finkel said he stood alone. he was the worlds greatest xylophonist, he says, because he was one of the few left, until covid took him at age 72. and covid also took ellis marsalis, who gave us a whole family of musicians, including wynton marsalis, the musician behind our theme song every sunday morning. if there was ever a year when we needed a laugh, this one was certainly it. one of the great that made it more funny. >> the first thing in the morning, before i have coffee, i read the obits. >> reporter: seriously? >> yes. if i'm not in it, i'll have breakfast. >> reporter: carl reiner, he was a writer, producer, and director, and he made other people funny. >> if i think about how i would like to go, i would like to go in my sleep. what a show this would be if i was talking to you and... >> reporter: there is funny, and then there is the absurd. harry jones, co-founder of monty python's flying circus took his humor to side-slitting seems. >> how are we today? >> reporter: contrast that with the gentleness of waltudisney's entertainment. when it came to snow white, they couldn't have done it without marge. >> everything she does, that was me. >> reporter: she was the dancer they used to draw those moves. snow white looked so real because she was. we lost the great art of scooby-doo, too. joe reuben and ken spears visioned a gang of teenagers and a great dane teaming up to solve mysteries. ♪ we can count on you, scooby-doo ♪ >> i can say there is good trash and bad trash. bad trash are shows that aren't well-executed. >> reporter: scooby-doo was commissioned by fred silverman, top executive at cbs. he was one of the most powerful people in the industry, buying hits like "all in the family," and "lalaverne and shirley," which lost one of its stars, david lander, known as squiggy, left us, also. for all of those, we give a fond farewell. ♪ [theme from "mash". [. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: but out of that, a new holiday was born. >> a festivus for the rest of us. >> reporter: holidays are tough without the ones we love, unless, that is, you celebrate festivus. >> you gather your family around and tell them all of the ways they have disappointed you over the last year. >> reporter: at 92, jerry stiller, the father of actor ben stiller, is celebrating his invented holiday somewhere else this year. >> let's go into the jeopardy round. >> reporter: for 37 years, alex trebek gave us the answers to questions yet unknown. the unflappable host of jeopardy. >> it is the perfect television presentation of the great american dream. >> reporter: cancer left us all asking why him, why so soon? >> i've got stage four cancer. stage one is for sissies. that's just beginner's cancer. i've got advanced. >> why are you making me laugh? >> what else are we going to do. >> i'd like to ask a favor of regis. >> reporter: but when it came to naming the most versatile tv personality, the jeopardy answer would have to be: who is regis philbin? he could do anything with anyone, no matter the author. >> you're wearing me out. >> my future in this business dependent depends on oe name. >> reporter: he logged thousands of hours of air time. everyone knew him simply as regis. >> some people like a little anonimity in their lives, but it is very hard to do when you're on every day. >> bond, james bond. >> reporter: another single name defined for generations just what it means to be both dangerous and savvy. sean connery led the standard. >> i told the stewardess liquor for three. >> who are the other two? >> there are no other two. >> reporter: but the life of a real british spy is a little less glamorous. >> with the bond type of novel, the reader thinks, i wish i was him. with the stuff i'm writing, they think, oh, item glad i'm not him. >> reporter: but his heros weren't all flanked by bond-type beauties. margaret nolan, who gave us the goldfinger passed away at 96. >> you can turn off the charm. i'm im miewnd. >> reporter: it was dane diana rigg that captivated him so much, 007 timely tied the knot. rigg would, years later, capture a new generation in "game of thrones." >> this is a very old and honorable profession, and you should have a sense of privilege about being in it. because we answer a very profound need in society. >> reporter: some of those who answered that need enjoyed the longest lives. olivia de havilland, who was immortalized in "gone with the wind," left us at the age of 104. >> whatever comes, i'll love you just as i do now, until i die. >> that's star quality. >> reporter: kirk douglas, the original chiseled chin, had a commanding presence in just about everything he did. he made it to 103. >> for the first time in my life, people are cheering for me. >> reporter: to all of those who took us somewhere we couldn't go ourselves, we bid a fond good-bye. ♪ ♪ >> the whole of life becomes an act of letting go. but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say good-bye. >> cowan: journalism lost some of its brightest stars, too. you might know pbs' jim lehrer from the pbs "newshour," but he was also known... >> my job is to keep things fair and the subjects clear. >> reporter: for his skill in moderating presidential debates. we lost him this year, as well as journalist and author gail shee. >> i had to know what was going to happen at the next stage and the next stage and the next stage. >> reporter: our family here at cbs news is a bit smaller this year. bert quinn took us around the world. bill small was cbs' tireless washington bureau chief through the civil rights movement, watergate and vietnam. and maria mercader was one of the earliest victims of covid, and she was a friend to us all. for all its faults, 2020 did remind us of the gift of giving. doris buffet, the eldest sister to warren buffett, gave his money, as well as hers, to others. >> i feel like i have a job to do. if i do it right, things will be improve. children will have chances. women will have chances. >> we're living in tough times. we need hope. >> reporter: art dealer forest fenn sent people looking for gold nuggets, hidden for anyone to find. after 10 years, someone finally found his treasure, just three months before fenn died. >> we need to know that somewhere out there there is a rainbow with a pot of gold at the end of it. ♪ i can see clearly now, the rain is gone ♪ >> reporter: courage and kindness usually triumph in the end. ♪ i can see all obstacle in my way ♪ >> reporter: johnny nash, who left us at 80 this year, sang of a bright, sun-shiny day. while the sun isn't out just yet, the hope is it is just over the horizon. with all of those with the courage to walk or run or march for a better tomorrow, we are forever in your debt. to all of you, we say thank you and offer a fond hail and farewell. ♪ i can see clearly now, the rain is gone ♪ ♪ it's gonna be a bright, bright, sun-shiny day ♪ ♪ it's gonna be a bright, bright, sun-shiny day ♪ to be honest...a little dust? it never bothered me. until i found out what it actually was. dust mite matter? ewww. dead skin cells? gross! so now, i grab my swiffer heavy duty sweeper and dusters. dusters extends to 6 feet to reach way up high... to grab, trap and lock away gross dust. nice! for dust on my floors, i switch to sweeper. the heavy duty cloths reach deep in grooves to grab, trap and lock dust bunnies... no matter where they hide. no more heebie jeebies. phhhhew. glad i stopped cleaning and started swiffering. >> cowan: what to make of a year in which there was so much loss, so much pain, some thoughts from correspondent michelle miller. >> reporter: for me, 2020 will always mark the year i lost my aunt edna, a mother figure for most of my life. she was a survivor who faced segregation and came out on the other side with a sense of promise and hope. in the end, it was old age, not covid, that took aunt edna from us, my personal loss in a sea of loss globally that earned its own hashtag. 2020 may have rolled in with the usual hoopla and sense of anticipation, but it didn't take long for the dread to set in as coronavirus hit our shores, killing, seemingly at random. we quarantined and watched the numbers climbed. we call them numbers, but, of course, these were moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, aunts, uncles, cousins, teachers, nurses, doctors, and covid didn't stop there. its victims included jobs, businesses, our sense of safety, and normalcy. and even when it wasn't covid, 2020 took its toll. we lost the mothers and fathers of conscience and sacrifice at a time when it seemed like we needed them the most. >> my philosophy is very simple: when you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, stand up! say something. speak up and speak out. [applause] >> reporter: and so we welcome a new year with barely a backward glance. like aunt edna, with a sense of promise and hope for better things to come. ♪ >> cowan: our mo rocca has many callings. from him now, a closer look at the one-of-a-kind characters whom we lost. >> i'm sy sperling, president of hair club for men. can you guess who has a hair replacement here? >> reporter: for 44 years, hair club for men founder sy sperling was a weaver of dreams of hope for the follically challenged. >> we now have over 30,000 satisfied clients. >> all of a sudden my dad found himself in his mid-20s with thinning hair. >> reporter: daughter shari sperling says her father's ambition sprouted shortly after her parents divorced, and sy had to move in with his mother. >> he was trying to date again, and he wasn't having much success. >> reporter: but after restoring his own mane, he went into business marketing a process that non-surgically attached human hair to men's existing hair. and in 1982, the hair club shot its first commercial -- actually, two of them. >> they shot one commercial with one guy on horseback, and the ad guy was, in case this doesn't work, why don't we shoot one with you. >> reporter: on the spot they said to your father, let's do a backup? >> yes. the first commercial didn't work. they got barely any calls. and so they run my dad's commercial, and we had, like, 2,000 calls. >> reporter: and those calls were coming from lonely joes everywhere. >> let's say it is friday or saturday night, and maybe you didn't get so lucky, right, to be blunt. and so they come home and they're watching tv because they're still awake, maybe a little drunk, and they're flipping through channels, and there is my dad. >> it is designed to give you the facts you need to make an intelligent choice about what is best for you. >> almost speaking directly to these guys. >> reporter: saying, i'm going to help you. >> exactly. >> reporter: regular guy tv pitchmen were nothing new, but it was his bare honest at the end of the ad that set him apart. >> i'm not only the hair club president, but i'm also a client. >> reporter: that became his mantra. >> he took something that was embarrassing for him, being bald, and he made himself vulnerable. >> reporter: he was actually sharing something about himself? >> exactly. touche. >> reporter: i think a lot of people want to know exactly who you are and what the hell you're doing. sy sperling became a late-night comedy favorite. >> who is the president of the hair club for men? [laughter] >> reporter: did he like being famous? >> he loved it. he loved it. it is the american dream come true. >> ther >> reporter: but for shari sperling and so many of hair club's clients, sy sperling was no joke. >> they don't want to look like their 40 when your 23, 24 years old. >> he helped men to feel better about themselves and to live life. >> reporter: sy sperling died in february, at age 78, in boca raton, floors. florida, and his family says he was a hair club client to the very end. the surfaces in your home in 24 hours. try microban 24. spray on hard surfaces to kill 99.9% of viruses and bacteria initially, including the virus that causes covid-19. once dry, microban forms a bacteria shield that keeps killing bacteria for 24 hours, even after multiple touches. try microban 24. this has been medifacts for microban 24. to syour body needs routine. system, centrum helps your immune defenses every day, with vitamin c, d and zinc. season, after season. ace your immune support, with centrum. the sleep number 360 smart bed. prices of the season on can it help with snoring? i've never heard snoring. ...exactly. no problem. ...and done. and now, the queen sleep number 360 c2 smart bed is only $899. plus, no interest until january 2024. only for a limited time. i guess i look pretty... ridiculous. 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[sounds of rushing water captioning made possible by johnson & johnson, committed to improving health for everyone, everywhere. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> cowan: i'm lee cowan. we wish all of you a happy new year and hope you'll join us again next year for our next "sunday morning." until then, stay safe, be well, and enjoy the rest of your weekend. ♪ christmas eve... everybody spends the night at the house. i love christmas, i always did. it's loud, it's family being together. a lot of food, music, people, hugs. that's a perfect christmas. ♪ ♪ ♪ captioning sponsored by cbs i'm margaret brennan, and this is "face the nation." 2020 without last-minute breaking news. first, that early christmas morning explosion that rocked the city of nashville. we'll talk with the mayor of nashville, john cooper. former f.b.i. sif assistant director frank figliuzzi will be with us. and more than a million americans have been vaccinated so far as coronavirus cases, deaths, and hospitalizations continue to climb dramatically. the governor of california says his state c

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