Clokey and his wife, Ruth, invented Gumby in the early 1950s at their Covina home shortly after Art had finished film school at USC. After a successful debut on "The Howdy Doody Show," Gumby soon became the star of its own hit television show, "The Adventures of Gumby," the first to use clay animation on television.
After an initial run in the 1950s, Gumby enjoyed comebacks in the 1960s as a bendable children's toy, in the 1980s after comedian Eddie Murphy parodied the kindly Gumby as a crass, cigar-in-the-mouth character in a skit for "Saturday Night Live" and again in the '90s with the release of "Gumby the Movie."
Today, Gumby is a cultural icon recognized around the world. It has more than 134,000 fans on Facebook.
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Catherine Biden, mother of Vice President Joseph Biden, 92, after being seriously ill in recent days:
Mrs. Biden was in the audience when he accepted the vice-presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Denver on Aug. 27, 2008.
In his speech, Mr. Biden said she had helped and encouraged him in overcoming his stuttering as a youth, telling him that he stuttered “because I was so bright, I couldn’t get the thoughts out quickly enough.”
After his wife and daughter were killed in an auto accident in December 1972, Mr. Biden said, “She told me, ‘Joey, God sends no cross you cannot bear.’ And when I triumphed, she was quick to remind me it was because of others.”
He added: “My mother’s creed is the American creed: No one is better than you. You are everyone’s equal, and everyone is equal to you.”
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