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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

As a teenager, John Thomas was a superstar.

(SOUNDBITE OF A SPORTSCAST)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Track and field sensation of the year was the seven feet, inch-and-a-quarter high jump of John Curtis Thomas in Madison Square Garden. A dazzling new world record for the 17-year-old Boston U freshman.

In his second inaugural address, the president surprised many listeners by mentioning Stonewall in the same breath as Seneca Falls and Selma — giving the struggle for gay rights the historical weight of the fights for gender and racial equality.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

One of greatest hitters in the history of baseball, Stan Musial, has died. He was born 92 years ago in Donora, Pennsylvania and raised there. But for his fans, Stan the Man, as he was known, will forever be linked to the St. Louis and the Cardinals.

Greg Echlin has this remembrance.

GREG ECHLIN, BYLINE: Wearing a bright red blazer while riding in the back of a shiny car, before the 2009 All-Star game in St. Louis, Stan Musial had one more chance to bask in the adoration of his fans.

Pauline Phillips, whose "Dear Abby" column offered advice about love and life to readers around the world, died at the age of 94. Host Rachel Martin discusses Philips' career with Amy Dickinson, the Chicago Tribune's advice columnist for "Ask Amy."

Pauline Phillips, the writer behind the Dear Abby advice column died Wednesday after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. She was 94.

Pauline Phillips, better known as the columnist "Dear Abby," died Wednesday at the age of 94.

On today's Morning Edition, Shereen Marisol Meraji had a great piece about the memorial of Southern California public-television staple Huell Howser, who died of cancer earlier this month.

On Tuesday, hundreds of people turned out to remember him. As Meraji says, for these fans, Howser was "a man who took them to places they never knew they wanted to go and introduced them to people they never knew they wanted to meet."

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

In Southern California fans gathered yesterday to say goodbye to a regional icon, Huell Howser. He was a host of popular travel shows on PBS, focusing on the charms of his adopted state, California and gaining a huge following with a camcorder and an aw-shucks Southern drawl.

HUELL HOWSER: Well, hello everybody. I'm Huell Howser. And you know over the years, we have done literally thousands of stories about all kinds of subjects all over this state.

MONTAGNE: Howser died earlier this month of cancer.