(NEXSTAR) — Elwood Edwards, the man behind AOL’s iconic “You’ve got mail” voice alert has died at age 74, according to his former employer, local Cleveland television station WKYC .
The outlet reported that he passed away from an undisclosed illness on Nov. 5, a day before his 75th birthday.
Described by WKYC as a “jack-of-all trades,” Edwards worked in various roles at the station throughout the years, from graphics supervisor to camera operator.
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In 1989, he recorded four simple phrases for AOL, including “You’ve got mail,” “Welcome,” “File’s done,” and “Goodbye.” His wife Karen, a customer service representative at Quantum Computer Services — the company that would later become AOL — connected him with the opportunity.
“She heard Steve Case [the company’s co-founder] talking to some of the programmers about how fun it would be to add a voice to the software,” Edwards said in a June 2016 interview with the Great Big Story . “I’d been an announcer throughout my entire broadcasting career, and she volunteered me.”