We at SOTL tend give local media personalities a fair amount of grief — we playfully tease a columnist about a subject choice or good-naturedly highlight a reporter’s foibles (or in one particular case, have made it a public service to temper crushing smugness). But this morning we want to take a moment to have a more serious discussion.
Today we stumbled across KMBC anchor Larry Moore’s Web page – as we all know, Larry has been a familiar face on the local news scene for years, and we were delighted to see such things as video of him sharing his Famous Pancake Recipe or offering tips on how to get the best soil for a vegetable garden. We were also impressed by the causes he supports, such as The Dream Factory, an organization that helps to fulfill the wishes of children with illnesses and disabilities. As KMBC viewers can testify, Moore has a passion for working with these kids and regularly features their stories during evening news broadcasts. Something we didn’t know: Moore is a cancer survivor, and is active in promoting area support services and resources. He shares the three factors in how he successfully battled non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, offering practical, hopeful advice to others.
What really moved us to bring Larry’s page to readers’ attention was today’s blog entry:
Those of you who read this space regularly are aware that three years ago my wife, Ruth, received a flu shot in her doctor’s office and 24 hours later lay paralyzed in the emergency room at Saint Luke’s Hospital, a condition that still persists today. It has been a challenging three years.
Viewers always ask how she is doing and I always have trouble answering because life is so different today. Basically, Ruth has learned to cope, to understand that things will never be the same again, and that through extensive physical therapy she is able to navigate her way around without feeling.
We were not familiar with this frightening incident — a truly difficult and seemingly random occurrence. It turns out Larry’s family is not only still dealing with the emotional and physical effects of this case, but are still working their way through legal proceedings:
All of the memories of that horrible day in November 2005, were brought back as we told our story in Vaccine Court at the federal courthouse in Kansas City on Wednesday — the first step in trying to recoup some of the medical expenses that have become horrendous the past three years.
We’d like to send some good thoughts towards the Moore family — as anyone who’s ever dealt with the bureaucracy of the health care system knows, an already psychologically exhausting experience is made even more difficult by the hoops one has to jump through.
It’s not often that the public has an opportunity to really learn about a media figure’s life outside the newsroom in such honest, open terms. Technology and the Internet have made such access more commonplace, but few use the tool with such candor (“Back to Rockville’s” Tim Finn is another fine example of a local media figure trusting his or her audience with deeply personal stories).
Word around media circles in town is that Larry is one of the classiest gents in the business — a very genuine person, devoted to the causes he believes in. He recognizes that earning the trust of viewers is not something that should be taken for granted, going above and beyond merely reporting the goings-on in this community — he actively strives to make it a better place, which is a hallmark of a real icon. Bravo for Larry’s willingness to share even the most difficult of personal experiences with people who primarily know him as the friendly face on the evening news.
