David Cunningham "Dave" Garroway (July 13, 1913 – July 21, 1982) was an American television personality. He was the founding host and anchor of NBC's Today from 1952 to 1961. His easygoing and relaxing style belied a lifelong battle with depression. Garroway has been honored for his contributions to radio and television with a star for each on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as well as the St. Louis Walk of Fame, the city where he spent part of his teenage years and early adulthood.

Biography

Marriages and children
Garroway was married three times and had three children. His first marriage was to Adele Dwyer whom he married in 1945. The couple had a daughter, Paris, before divorcing the following year. He married former actress and ballerina Pamela Wilde in 1956. They had a son, David Cunningham Garroway, Jr., in 1958. Garroway later adopted Wilde's son Michael from her first marriage. Wilde died of a prescription drug overdose on April 28, 1961. Garroway married astronomer Sarah Lee Lippincott in February 1980. They remained married until Garroway's death in 1982.


Interests

He was very interested in astronomy, and during a tour of Russian telescopes he met his third wife, astronomer Sarah Lee Lippincott. In his final years, he attended astronomy symposia at Swarthmore College and spent time at Sproul Observatory.

Garroway was also an automobile enthusiast and one of his hobbies was collecting and restoring vintage luxury and sports cars. He was especially fond of his 1938 Jaguar SS100, which he also raced in his spare time. Garroway was featured in several automobile commercials, including the first Corvette in 1953, and the Ford Falcon in 1964.

Garroway, an amateur drummer and inveterate music lover, lent his name to a series of recordings of jazz, classical, and pop music released in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Among them were Wide, Wide World of Jazz, 1957's Some of My Favorites and 1958's Dave Garroway's Orchestra: An Adventure in Hi-Fi Music.