I bet he had a strong back from giving all those misguided men a Christian burial.

Every night possible, as a toddler, I sat on my Papa's lap, staying up WAY past my bedtime (we never told mom), and watched Gunsmoke after the late news ended. From the opening gunshot until the credits rolled over the coffeepot on the wood-stove in his office at the jail, U.S. Marshall Matt Dillion thrilled us both. There was little gray in the formulaic plots; everything was black and white. Right was right, wrong was wrong, and the law made sense back then. The law was a good thing. And Matt Dillon WAS that law. He never seemed to take pleasure in enforcing the law, and by that, I mean shooting 1-5 outlaws a week. I bet he had a strong back from giving all those misguided men a Christian burial. Graves don't dig themselves. And how many times did the character get shot in the shoulder?! The answer kids, is, as you already know, twelve less times than Festus got cold cocked with a gun-butt across the back of his head.

James Arness was, without question, the TV John Wayne. Recently the library got the first season of Gunsmoke on DVD. The first episode was introduced by John Wayne and started out in Amarillo, Texas. Many loved Bonanza, or the Virginian, or Have Gun Will Travel, but James Arness as Matt Dillon was the cowboy I wanted to be when I was blasting cap guns at whoever lost the toss and had to be the bad-guy while playing Cowboys and Indians.

I am saddened by his passing.