Bob Keeshan entertained children for years as the jovial Captain Kangaroo. The television show Captain Kangaroo ran on CBS for nearly thirty years, from October 1955 until December 1984, making it one of the longest-running nationally broadcasted children’s television programs.

In Keeshan’s autobiography Growing Up Happy, he shared the moment when he realized life would be marvelous. Shortly after the Second World War, Keeshan, an eighteen-year-old Marine, was on board the troopship USS Rockbridge Ranger sailing toward his last duty station in Hawaii. He enjoyed spending the dark nights standing in the forecastle, gazing at the starlit skies. The bow dipped into each succeeding wave and when it raised the heavens shown gloriously overhead. Reflecting on this experience Keeshan wrote, “The…