Obituary: Charles Stewart McCatherin – Portland Press Herald

Charles Stewart McCatherin

FARMINGDALE — Charles Stewart McCatherin, 70, a broadcaster and lifelong Yankee fan, died right here on Thursday October 27, 2022 after a protracted battle with most cancers.

Charlie, a Portland resident, had lived in Farmingdale for a number of months together with his sister and brother-in-legislation Keltie and Joseph Collins whereas recovering from most cancers surgical procedure.

Born in Augusta on July 26, 1952, the fourth little one of D. Stewart and Emma Mary McCatherin, he attended Augusta Schools and the University of Maine at Augusta. As a toddler, Charlie developed a eager curiosity in baseball and have become a fanatic of the New York Yankees, to which he remained loyal till his final days. He cherished watching Aaron Judge draw the Yankees after which beat the American League dwelling run file, however he was all the time a Mickey Mantle fan at coronary heart.

While at college, Charlie started working at WFAU Radio in Augusta as a janitor, a job that led to a really profitable profession in broadcasting throughout the nation. After working as an announcer and disc jockey on Augusta space stations, he transferred to WJTO in Bath the place he was recognized on the air as Chuck Howard.

From there, the proficient station went on and on, together with main market stations in Providence, RI, Cleveland, Ohio and St. Louis, Missouri. In the Seventies he joined Casa Blanca Records as a promoter within the Midwest based mostly in St. Louis, Missouri. There he was answerable for working with the celebrities of that label, selling names like Donna Summer and The Village People.

In the Nineteen Eighties he moved to New York City, NY the place he labored for the well-known Z100, the town’s premier market station and popularity for being the #1 radio market on this planet. There he produced a nationwide present for radio character Shadow Stevens, which was syndicated on a number of hundred stations, and the place he met and labored with Scott Shannon.

When Shannon purchased a big market station in New Orleans, Louisiana, Charlie moved there as manufacturing supervisor and lived within the French Quarter on Orleans Street, simply three blocks from the well-known Bourbon Street. His household, most of whom did, quickly discovered Charlie a go to in New Orleans, La. It was like royalty as he was well-known in all the key venues within the metropolis from his broadcasting profession.

His brother recollects a jazz pageant weekend on the town and an extended line on the legendary Jazz Preservation Hall when Charlie made his approach to the pinnacle of the road, the place the membership’s supervisor shouted, “Hey Charlie, come in.”

It was additionally in New Orleans, La., that Charlie met his longtime companion Edward Roberson Jr., who predeceased him in 1998.

Retiring from broadcasting, Charlie moved to the West Coast and lived in several elements of California till he returned to Maine in 2011. He lived in Portland and have become an early morning legend, strolling about seven miles across the peninsula a day. He additionally turned a key volunteer on the Ronald McDonald House on Brackett Street.

Charlie is survived by his sister Keltie and husband Joseph and their youngsters Heather Collins and fiancé Sean Buck of Fairfield and Holly and Derek Gannett of Manchester; Brother John and his companion Barbara Kovach of Carrabasset Valley and his youngsters Leslie and Scott of Yarmouth; the kids of Charlie’s late sister Jean and her husband Jim McDonald of Spruce Head, Julie McDonald and William Ross of Santa Barbara, California, James and Althea McDonald of Carey, NC, Jane McDonald and spouse Susan Andrews of Montara, California, Jeffrey McDonald Santa Barbara, California, John and Kelley McDonald of Houston, Texas; the sons of Charlie’s late sister, Carol Martin, Jonathan Stevens and his companion, Carolyn Jette of Millbury, Mass., and Christopher Stevens of Elgin, Illinois, and all their households; and particular pal and cousin Constance McCatherin Silver and her husband Martin Silver of Westport, Connecticut.

Charlie might be vastly missed by his prolonged household and buddies for the boundless vitality, laughter and pleasure he dropped at all of their lives.

The entire household may be very grateful for the loving care and assist Charlie obtained earlier than and through his sickness from his ‘little’ sister Keltie and her husband Joe at their dwelling in Farmingdale and for the work of the Androscoggin Home Health Care and Hospice.

There aren’t any funeral preparations, however a celebration of Charlie’s life is deliberate for July 23, 2023, subsequent summer time, at Spruce Head, when most of his members of the family might be again in Maine.

Meanwhile, Charlie has requested that his ashes be scattered by his household on the location of the unique Yankee Stadium within the Bronx.

The preparations are entrusted to Staples Funeral Home and Cremation Care, 53 Brunswick Ave., Gardiner. The obituary web page of the Staples Funeral Home web site, http://www.staplesfuneralhome.com, permits condolences, remembrances and pictures to be shared with the household

Anyone who wish to bear in mind Charlie can accomplish that by making a contribution to the Ronald McDonald House

in Portland.

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