By George Castle, CBM Historian
December 29, 2020
Jack Rosenberg with a typical pose in the old WGN-TV broadcast booth, ready to work with his trusty manual typewriter.
Jack Rosenberg had to be the ultimate people person with the persuasive touch to book sitting presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan for WGN-TV baseball broadcasts.
But as adept as “Rosey” was for the station for whom he served as the “glue” for sports programming for more than three decades, he was even better when it came to dedicating his good works in memory of beloved wife Mayora Rosenberg.
Rather than simply mourning his beloved Mayora through his 80s, Rosey ensured her social-work career in tough inner-city circumstances would be remembered. Using the phone and pressing the flesh, two of his sublime attributes, the gravel-voiced native of downstate Pekin, Ill. helped spearhead a multi-millions fund-raising campaign for a women’s center at Swedish Hospital (formerly Swedish Covenant) in Chicago.
The value of a women’s center was not taken lightly. For religious or other reasons, many women felt uncomfortable seeing a male physician. At the new center, they could visit a female doctor in welcoming surroundings. Rosey’s involvement and work ethic ensured the project would get done.
Unfortunately, the next time Rosenberg’s name came up in connection with Swedish Hospital was the kind of bad news that 2020 — rivaling 1932 and 1861 as the worst years in U.S. history — has trademarked. Media accounts on Monday, Dec. 28, reported Rosey had died at 94 at the hospital.
STORY
Category Chicago Baseball History Feature Tags Arne Harris, baseball broadcasting, Cardinals, Chicago Baseball, Chicago Sun Times, Chicago Tribune, Continental Baseball Network, Durocher, Griffith Stadium, Harry Caray, Irv Kupcinet, Jack Brickhouse, Jack Rosenberg, jewish wedding, Jim West, John F. Kennedy, Lou Boudreau, Mayora Rosenberg, Pekin, Peoria Journal-Star, Robert R. McCormick, Ronald Reagan, Rosey, Swedish Hospital, Tom Hanks, Vince Lloyd, vintage manual typewriters, WGN, WGN Sports, WGN-TV, WGN-TV baseball, White House, White Sox, Wrigley Field