This is a quick reply to all interested in Terry Wadsworth...
Especially daughter, Summer!

What a heart-stopping moment to know you exist, Summer!
Am delighted to share what I know...although from long ago. I cannot tell you how he influenced my life...

Terry was my best friend in our early teenage years at Gault Jr. Hi &, for me, briefly at Lincoln Hi, Tacoma.

I last saw him in Hollywood as I was about to begin broadcast school...a trade school because colleges did not yet offer such programs. That was 50 years ago---June '62.

He was a huge influence on me & I looked up to him beyond words---for his wit, for his teaching me a love of music (no, I can't sing nor play anything---just love music!)...

And because it was from him I 1st got the idea in our very Blue Collar town that working in a plant, or factory or the Smelter or ???, was not what I wanted to do---But to do creative work--- to go into broadcasting!
He was attending some little broadcasting school in downtown Tacoma, I think a Vocational school as he was probably a HS dropout, as was I.
That was the germ of an idea I pursued after 6 years in the Air Force with the G.I. Bill.

This is much more than I intended to write...but memories flow!

They may be a bit scattered, but will try to fill in later...
I remember brother Joel & another brother whose name I've lost, one older, one younger. Terry's step-Dad was Orviille Gibson (maybe Gipson?). Can't recall his Mom's name. They lived just two blocks from Gualt.

We hung out with a group of guys on McKinley Hill, a small business district with a cafe, tavern, etc., even a movie theater just few blocks from Gault! We thought of ourselves as the 'McKinley Hill Gang'---although not today's definition of a gang...just a small group of guys who were friends with few if any social skills (God knows with Girls!) who 'hung out!!!

I think most of them are dead now. Although through friend Dave Stageberg in Tacoma, have re-met several---Lenny Olin, Butch Weller, Jim Bailey, etc., at Dave & RoseMarie's 50 th Wedding Anniversary in '09! Dale 'Moose' Sysum has passed since then.

Five or six guys joined the AF a few months after I did---Bob Strayer died in a FL car wreck within a year, Harry Verlo (whose sister Judy Hobbs has done so much to re-connect us all) died several years ago, etc...

Dave gave me a large photo of our 9th Grade graduating class at Gault, which I'll be glad to share....Funny aside: neither Dave nor I recall the photo being shot!!!
Terry was about as skinny a kid as I was!

As for Terry's death---I've not yet been able to confirm it--& this is a strong priority for me---but am told by a guy in OR who knew him in Santa Rosa that Terry had a bad acid trip on top of some depression & did take his own life...

I am in touch with Randy Sparks, creator, lead guy of New Christy Minstrels. The group still plays (you can Google their name for where they play), and they've done shows in my little community near Sacramento for several years. He lives in an old gold mining town in the foothills nearby...

Randy connected us in '62. No memory of how I knew Terry was with the Minstrels in '62, but called Capitol Records & asked if they could let Randy know I was looking for Terry. Think it as a day or so later that he called the little hotel I was staying in just off Hollywood Blvd. & told me he had passed word that I was looking for him (Terry had left the group by then). Terry called & came by & we talked for an hour or so.

Mainly I recall that he had just finished an acting job in a 'pilot' for a satirical Western.
The quite accomplished Englsh actor Robert Morley was the lead & Terry---not known for a lack ego or belief in himself---felt Morley treated him with disdain, or maybe just 'the kid.' LOL!

Finally---for now---you will understand why I celebrate Terry's influence in my young, uncertain, in fact aimless life with where his spark of an idea has led me.

I became a TV engineer, reporter, then main anchorman & News Director in a small town north of Sacramento...Chico. Two years later I came to Sacramento to the CBS TV station as a reporter, producer, anchor & whatever else needed doing in the newsroom...

That led to other careers, especially an appointment by Gov. Reagan to his communications staff, PR work, magazine writing & appointment as spokesman for a CA state gov't department by Gov. Arnold (who later, of course, derailed himself!)...

So, you might as well have told me that I could flap my arms & fly to the Moon back when Terry was my friend & gave me inspiration!!!

I can write a bit more later...am slowed with a cold now & have done all this from memory!
Which, because I find myself in good health having 'got to be' 75 two days ago...I am more than delighted to contribute to our collective memories...
Especially for Summer!

Creative, talented, witty, sometimes wacky Wadsworth dreamed he could be 'somebody!'
And because of him so did I!

Glad to hear from any/all of you!!!
Warmest regards
Bob McCafferty
Fair Oaks, CA
P.S. am supposed to be retired---but too busy to go back to work! Thankfully!