Casey Kasem, the US radio personality who counted down pop music hits on his popular weekly radio show and also lent his distinctive voice to hippie sleuth Shaggy in the "Scooby Doo" cartoons, died on Sunday. He was 82.
"Early this Father's Day morning, our dad Casey Kasem passed away surrounded by family and friends," his daughter, Kerri Kasem, said in a statement posted online. "Even though we know he is in a better place and no longer suffering, we are heartbroken."
Kasem, whose final years were marked by dementia, had been the focus of a dispute between his three children from his first marriage and his second wife, Jean Kasem, who they said had prevented them from visiting as he suffered from Lewy body dementia, a malady with symptoms similar to Parkinson's disease.
He was born in Detroit as Kemal Amin Kasem on April 27, 1932, the son of a Lebanese Druze grocer. He gained broadcast experience covering sports for his high school's radio club.
The diminutive Kasem - 5 feet, 6 1/2 inches tall (1.68 meters) - was drafted to serve in the US military in 1952 and was sent to the Korean War, working as a disc jockey on US armed forces radio.
Kasem had three children with his first wife, Linda Myers, before divorcing in 1979. Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson officiated when he married his second wife, actress Jean Kasem, in 1980. They had one child.
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