Robert W. Sanders, 89, of Lake Geneva, WI, died Sunday October 13, 2013. Bob was born in Tuscumbia, AL on July 31, 1924 the youngest of five children of Thomas Jefferson Sanders and Anna Mae Sanders. He liked to joke that Tuscumbia had two prominent citizens, Helen Keller and Bob Sanders. His father was an itinerant carpenter going where there was work, so when his mother died when Bob was less than two years old he lived with P.L. and Ansell Braden who raised him with love and care. Bob attended Deshler High School and the University of Alabama. In 1942 Bob was drafted into the Army and served in General Patton’s Army. During their march through France and into Germany he became ill with pleurisy and was sent to a hospital in Shreveport, LA to recover. During a conversation with another patient about what they were going to do now that they were going back to civilian life, his friend said, “You like to talk why don’t you go on the radio.” He took that to heart, went back to the university and majored in radio arts. He also strutted his stuff as a drum major with the Million Dollar Band and played the bass fiddle in a dance band. His radio career began at a small station in Florence, AL and over a span of some 50 years he worked on radio stations in Birmingham, Kansas City, St. Louis, Wichita, Chicago, New York and Milwaukee. While in St. Louis at KSD & KSD-TV he met the love of his life, Betty Kwitzky. Betty was a freelance performer and when they met at the TV station they found that they had many of the same career ambitions. They married May 15, 1954 seven months to the day after they met. Their journey took them and their two children Clarke and Lisa to Kansas City and then on to Wichita where Bob and Betty developed a style of delivering commercials which worked for them. When the family arrived in Chicago and the opportunity for Bob and Betty to work as a team on WBBM Radio came along they realized that the chemistry they had between them came through to their audience and they had not only a rapport between themselves but with their audience as well. Even though they went to New York and Milwaukee after Chicago, they always felt that Chicago was where they enjoyed their greatest success. Bob always said
“I never worked a day in my life, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.” In recent years Bob became a prolific writer and his column IT SEEMS TO ME was featured in The Lake Geneva Regional News.
Bob is survived by: his wife of 59 years, Betty, two children; Clarke (Lillian) Sanders and Lisa (Dominique) Finas, and three grandchildren; Miles Sanders, Emily Sanders and Gina (Rusty) Lueger.
Services will Friday October 18, 2013 at 11:00 a.m. at Linn Presbyterian Church, W3335 Willow Rd., Lake Geneva, WI. Burial will follow in Spring Grove Cemetery in Delavan, WI. Visitation will be Thursday from 4:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. in the chapel of the Derrick Funeral Home in Lake Geneva, WI. In lieu of other expressions of sympathy memorials are requested in Bob’s name to: the Salvation Army. To sign the on-line guest registry please go to: www.derrickfuneralhome.com.
