Another Whitey Legend Passes; Bob Barker Checks Out at 99; No Word on Whether “Parkinson’s” Shortened or Extended His Life

Bob Barker and his girls: Dian Parkinson, Holly Hallstrom, & Janice Pennington

By Grand Rapids Anonymous
saturday, august 26, 2023 at 10:35:00 p.m. edt

“Bob Barker, the legendary host of The Price is Right, has died, people can confirm. He was 99.”

[GRA: Which proves that an affair with Dian Parkinson will keep you alive for at least three more decades.]

Barker died of natural causes in his longtime Hollywood Hills home this week, Roger Neal — who served as his publicist from 1987 through 1994, and again from 2020 — announced Saturday on behalf of Barker’s girlfriend, Nancy Burnet.

[Bob, at 99,had a GF? What a stud.]

“‘It is with profound sadness that we announce that the World’s Greatest MC who ever lived, Bob Barker, has left us,’ Neal said in a statement.

“‘I am so proud of the trailblazing work Barker and I did together to expose the cruelty to animals in the entertainment industry and including working to improve the plight of abused and exploited animals in the United States and internationally,’ Burnet added in her own. ‘We were great friends over these 40 years. He will be missed.’

“Barker is survived by his half-brother Kent Valandra and half-nephews Robert Valandra and Chip Valandra, as well as a half-niece, Vickie Valandra Kelly.

“The TV personality has battled various health problems in the past few years. In January 2019, paramedics were called to Barker’s Hollywood Hills home after he fell at his residence. Although an ambulance was on the scene, he was not hospitalized.

“Several months earlier, Barker’s manager confirmed to people that an ambulance and the fire department responded to his Hollywood Hills home for a ‘non-emergency back problem’ in October, 2018.

“Afterwards, his manager said Barker was ‘fine and resting at home.’ The incident came more than a year after he fell and hit his head at his home in June 2017.”

GRA: His style of speaking always reminded me of Jack Benny.

I could tell—back in the day—he was canoodling with the sexiest woman of the day (all time?), Dian Parkinson. At the end of the shows, they’d play around like teenagers and I told my buddy at work—“He’s DOING her!”

“No, he isn’t.”

Then, years later, the news came out about a lawsuit by Parkinson (infuriated, because he dumped her) and I thought, “I knew it.”

Lucky bastard.

--GRA

N.S.: But imagine how long he’d lived, if not for apartheid.

Dian Parkinson