ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 7, 1995 TAG: 9512070047
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
The generation that grew up with Roanoke's first television station has lost one of the most beloved personalities of that era.
Thomas Jefferson Hughes Jr. - better known to children and adults alike as ``Uncle Looney Toon'' - died Tuesday night at age 84.
Hughes was one of the television pioneers who launched Roanoke's first station, WSLS-TV (Channel 10), on Dec. 10, 1952, said retired Program Director George Chernault.
Hughes read the opening station identification announcement when programming began for the first time that evening.
Like many of those first employees, Hughes performed all manner of duties at the station - producing, directing, announcing, writing and acting, said longtime friend and co-worker Dick Burton.
Primarily, though, Hughes was an announcer and featured performer on a variety of programs, Burton said.
His most widely recognized and best-loved character was ``Uncle Looney Toon,'' the host of an hour-long cartoon program that aired each weekday at 5:30 p.m. The show began in 1955, Burton said, and continued into the early 1960s.
The ``Uncle Looney'' character was inspired by a character from the play ``Tobacco Road,'' in which Hughes had once appeared.
The son of a Roanoke physician, Hughes attended Augusta Military Academy, the University of Virginia, Emory & Henry College and Roanoke College, from which he graduated in 1935 with a degree in biology.
A life on the stage called him away from a life of science, however, and he went to New York to study acting. Over the next six years, Hughes appeared in many productions, including Orson Welles' ``Julius Caesar'' and one with Van Johnson.
Hughes was teaching acting in Connecticut when he was drafted just after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He and Chernault met on the troop train headed for induction, but were separated for the duration of the war.
Back in Roanoke in 1946, the two became reacquainted as employees of what then was WSLS radio, now WSLC-AM, one of two stations in town. There, they began working with several others, including Burton, Jim Dickey and Mel Linkous, who later would be instrumental in the creation of WSLS-TV.
Hughes appeared on-air in numerous roles before and after ``Uncle Looney,'' but it was the bearded, overalls-clad bumpkin that people remembered.
Even though the character hasn't been seen on the air for three decades, his fans remembered him.
Chernault recalled accompanying Hughes to a dance marking the reopening of the Hotel Roanoke. ``A woman in her late 30s or early 40s came up to me, noticing I had him with me, and wanted to know if I would introduce her'' to Uncle Looney, Chernault said.
Hughes ``was probably - even up to today - the most popular local TV personality ever,'' Chernault said.
Hughes remained with WSLS until he retired in 1970.
He is survived by his wife, Myrtle; a son, Thomas Jefferson Hughes III; a daughter, Susan Hughes-Butler; three stepchildren and one grandson.
A memorial service will be held Saturday at 2 p.m. at Covenant Presbyterian Church. The family will receive friends in the church fellowship hall after the service.
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: File. Thomas Jefferson Hughes Jr. was inspired for theby CNBbearded bumpkin "Uncle Looney" by a character in the play "Tobacco
Road," in which he once appeared.