Humorist Roger Welsch, a master spinner of tales about rural Nebraska life whose Postcards From Nebraska feature appeared on the CBS show Sunday Morning for 13 years, died Friday at age 85.
Welsch had posted on Facebook this summer that he was battling kidney problems, then posted Tuesday that he was entering a hospice program.
He simply wrote that his “deterioration” had progressed faster than expected and the posting would be his last post “before I go to the great Facebook site over the Fourth Hill.”
Welsch first drew attention in 1974 when he ran for the Lancaster County weed control board on a “pro-weed” platform. Legendary CBS reporter and author Charles Kuralt did one of his “On the Road” stories on him, leading quickly to Welsch’s popular “Postcard” segments becoming a regular feature on “Sunday Morning.”
Welsch donated his farm near Dannebrog in 2007 to the Pawnee Indian Tribe, the original inhabitants of that area of central Nebraska. He was quoted by a Tulsa World reporter as saying “these people are not guests on our land, but rather we are guests on their land.”
Known eventually as “Captain Nebraska,” Welsch established a “Liars Hall of Fame” in his adopted hometown of Dannebrog and wrote several books about love, tractors, dogs and women, including “Everything I Learned about Women I Learned from Tractors.”
Welsch asked in his final Facebook post that instead of flowers or other memorials, fans and friends donate to their local humane society.