Rush Limbaugh in his senior year book from Central High School in Cape Girardeau, 1969
Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio host who called himself the ‘doctor of democracy’, died on Wednesday morning after a 12-month battle with lung cancer and an extraordinary career that won him the affections of US presidents and millions of Americans.
Limbaugh died at home in Palm Beach at the age of 70 on Wednesday morning. His fourth wife Kathryn announced the news of his death on his radio show to his loyal fans.
It brought an end to a 50-year career in political radio where he became beloved by the right and scorned by the left for his brash approach and bold insults.
Born Rush Hudson Limbaugh III in 1951, he grew up in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. His father, Rush Limbaugh Sr., was a respected jurist and ambassador who had an exceptional legal career after serving in the Air Force during the Second World War. His mother Mildred, known to her friends as Millie, was on the committee of the local Women’s Republican Club and the Cape Girardeau Area ’99 Women’s Pilot organization.
Rusty, as the younger Limbaugh was known, was shy, with little interest in school but a passion for broadcasting.
He would turn down the television during St. Louis Cardinals baseball games, offering play-by-play, and gave running commentary during the evening news. By high school, he had snagged a radio job.
‘One of the early reasons radio interested me was that I thought it would make me popular,’ he once wrote.
He married four times but had no children. The younger Limbaugh got his first taste of radio at aged 16, at the local station, KGMO, which was co-owned by his father.
After graduating high school, he spent one year at Missouri State University before dropping out to focus all of his efforts into journalism.
His first job was in 1971, as a DJ for WIXZ in Pennsylvania. He bounced around local stations, growing his profile at each one, before becoming Sacramento’s top radio host…
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