Ray Hartmann was part of the character and topography of St. Louis. We have our landmarks – like the Gateway Arch, a square-beyond-compare pizza, an amazing Forest Park. And, we once had our landmark journalist.
The landmark journalist is gone. How the hell could that happen? Could it really be that an errant tire, bouncing off an interstate median, crashing through his car windshield, taking out the 73-year-old driver?
His demise is one of life’s absurdities, the kind Ray might have pondered and pontificated about – with his hands up in the air. That was so much fun. We loved when he put his hands up in the air in exasperation on TV or on a sidewalk – talking at us a mile-a-minute…