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Tart-Tongued Disc Jockey Imus Dies at 79

Associated Press

   COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS - Disc jockey Don Imus, whose career was made
   and then undone by his acid tongue during a decades-long rise to radio
   stardom and an abrupt public plunge after a nationally broadcast racial
   slur, hasdied .He was 79.

   Imus died Friday morning at Baylor Scott and White Medical Center in
   College Station, Texas, after being hospitalized since Christmas Eve,
   according to a statement issued by his family. Deirdre, his wife of 25
   years, and his son Wyatt, 21, were at his side, and his son
   LieutenantZachary Don Cates was returning from military service
   overseas.

   Imus survived drug and alcohol woes, a raunchy appearance before
   PresidentBillClinton and several firings during his long career behind
   the microphone. But he was vilified and eventually fired after
   describing a women's college basketball team as ``nappy-headedhos.``

   His April 2007 racist and misogynist crack about the mostly black
   Rutgers squad, an oft-replayed 10-second snippet, crossed a line that
   Imus had long straddled as his rants catapulted him to prominence. The
   remark was heard coast to coast on 60 radio stations and the MSNBC
   cable network.

   Despite repeated apologies, Imus--just 10 years earlier named one of
   Time Magazine's 25 most influential Americans--became a pariah for a
   remark that he acknowledged was ``completely inappropriate ...
   thoughtless andstupid.``

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