James (Jimmy) Wall, who delighted a legion of kids as kindly and smart on the TV show died in his sleep Wednesday after a short illness. He was 92.
Although Wall's recurring role ended in 1978, he remained a beloved fixture at the CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan where he worked as a stage manager until last year.
Wall, a former vaudevillian who staged USO shows around Europe as a master sergeant in the U.S. Army, began his career with as a stage manager in 1962.
He later persuaded show producers to create the show's first black character.
They in turn decided his rich baritone was perfect for who added a sense of calm to the show when all others around him may have been caught up in the silliness.
As a stage manager - the director's eyes and ears - Wall worked CBS News and CBS Sports broadcasts, including and the
Two years ago he was recognized on the air for his 41st consecutive year as stage manager of the U.S. Open Tennis Championships.
He also worked political conventions, presidential inaugurations, election coverage and the space launches of the 1960s, counting down time for the likes of Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather.
Through the years Wall got to know thousands of CBS employees whom he fascinated with stories of his long and eventful career.
Wall left his Manhattan home and went to sea as 15, delivering sugar for New York bootlegger stills during Prohibition, and later sang and danced in Vaudeville acts that took him around the country and put him on Broadway stages.
Walls attended college on the G.I. Bill when he left the Army and continued his love affair with the theater through the 1950s.
He played various roles in New York stage productions, often stage managing and performing in the same show, before joining CBS where he became the second black stage manager hired by the network.
The Director's Guild of America gave Wall its Franklin J. Schaffner achievement Award in 1994.
He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Dolly Wall.
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