RIP Bob Newhart - Famous Catholic Comedian Dies who was Friends with the Rosary Priest Fr. Patrick Peyton!

George Robert Newhart has died, September 5, 1929 – July 18, 2024, at age 94. He was an American comedian and actor. Newhart was an accountant and began in entertainment as a stand-up comedian, and then started acting in television. He won three Grammy Awards, an Emmy Award, and a Golden Globe Award.

Newhart was born on September 5, 1929 in Oak Park, Illinois, USA. His parents were Julia Pauline (née Burns; 1901–1994), a housewife, and George David Newhart (1899–1987), a part-owner of a plumbing supply business. His mother was of Irish descent, while his father was of German and Irish descent. The family name Newhart is of German origin (Neuhart).  He had three sisters. One of the three sisters, Mary Joan, who passed away in 2018, was a nun, a member of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Newhart was educated at Roman Catholic schools in the Chicago area, including St. Catherine of Siena Grammar School in Oak Park, and attended St. Ignatius College Prep (high school), graduating in 1947.
He then enrolled at Loyola University Chicago from which he graduated in 1952 with a bachelor's degree in business management. Newhart was drafted into the U.S. Army and served in the United States during the Korean War as a clerk until being discharged in 1954. He briefly attended Loyola University Chicago School of Law, but did not complete a degree, in part, he said, because he was asked to behave unethically during an internship.
He was Friends with Father Patrick Peyton the rosary priest. Buddy Hackett introduced Newhart to Virginia Lillian "Ginnie" Quinn (born December 9, 1940), the daughter of character actor Bill Quinn. They were married on January 12, 1963. The couple had four children, sons Robert (born 1965) and Timothy (born 1967) and daughters Jennifer (born 1973) and Courtney (born 1979), as well as ten grandchildren. Both Roman Catholic, they raised their children in the faith. He was a member of the Church of the Good Shepherd and the related Catholic Motion Picture Guild in Beverly Hills, California. Ginnie Newhart died at age 82 on April 23, 2023.
They celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary shortly before Ginnie’s passing.
How did he stay married for so long? “Being Catholic has a lot to do with it,” Newhart told Patrick Novecosky in an interview for Legatus.org. “You work a little harder. You don’t just have your first fight and walk out the door.”
Newhart shared with Novecosky his suspicion that the Man Upstairs enjoys a good joke, too: “I think God has an incredible sense of humor. All you have to do is look around the world. There’s no question that He has an incredible sense of humor.”
In 1985, Newhart was hospitalized for secondary polycythemia, a condition attributed to his years of heavy smoking. He recovered after several weeks and eventually quit smoking.

Sources: Guideposts, Legatus and Wikipedia