[Dixielandjazz] Harry Kullijian, husband of Broadway icon Carol Channing, dies at 91

[Robert Ringwald]

Judith Salkin
The Desert Sun
RANCHO MIRAGE - Harry Kullijian, the husband of Broadway legend Carol Channing, died
Monday at Eisenhower Medical Center, a day short of his 92nd birthday.
A family spokesman said Kullijian - a former rancher and Central Valley political
leader - spent Christmas with his family and collapsed early Monday at the couple's
Rancho Mirage home after suffering an aneurysm.
He was rushed to the hospital early Monday morning and died a short time later.
Kullijian, who met Channing while attending middle school in San Francisco, was diagnosed
with an aneurysm two years ago, said Harlan Boll, Channing's public relations manager.
It had been repaired, but doctors recently discovered internal bleeding from the
site. Kullijian was offered an experimental procedure at the University of California,
Los Angeles, but declined.
"Harry didn't want any heroic measures," Boll said. "He said he was ready to go,
and we all knew this was coming."
"Poor Carol," said longtime Coachella Valley journalist Gloria Greer. "Theirs was
such a love story."
Greer related how Kullijian was urged to reconnect with Channing after she mentioned
him in her 2000 memoir, "Just Lucky I Guess."
The pair had dated for a few years but lost touch for decades - as Channing became
a musical theater hit with her Tony-winning role in "Hello, Dolly. " But they never
forgot about each other.
"They were so adorable together," Greer said. "They were always holding hands, and
he'd look at her like they were still 12."
Filmmaker Dori Bernstein, who produced and directed the upcoming documentary "Carol
Channing: Larger Than Life," called Kullijian "a very complicated man in spirit."
"And he was completely dedicated and magnanimous when it came to working to bring
the arts back to schools," Bernstein said.
Kullijian seemed to be comfortable with his second-degree brush with fame.
"We go to these celebrity events, and, of course, everyone knows and loves Carol
and wants to talk to her," Kullijian said in an interview with The Modesto Bee in
October.
"Then they point to me and ask, `Who's he?' It doesn't matter who I am; it only matters
that I'm helping someone else."
Kullijian was born in Turlock in 1919. His family moved to San Francisco when he
was 3 years old. He served in World War II as an artillery officer and was recalled
to duty in the Korean War.
Kullijian started his farming career as a walnut grower in the Central Valley in
the early 1950s and went on to serve two terms on the Modesto City Council.
In 1942, he married Gerry Amos. The couple and their two children returned to Turlock
in 1952, and he lived in the Central Valley until her death in 2002.
A couple years after marrying Channing in May 2003, the couple founded the Dr. Carol
Channing and Harry Kullijian Foundation for the Arts.
"We feel arts in the public schools is the only way now, when our country is in such
a terrible condition," Kullijian told The Bee.
"So many kids are deprived (when arts programs are eliminated) of the opportunity
to have a vision. We have a saying: `We're not trying to save the arts; we're trying
to use the arts to save our children.'"
In addition to Channing, Kullijian is survived by two children, John Kullijian and
Leslee "Missie" Fennell; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
No funeral services will be held.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to The Channing-Kullijian Foundation, 101
First St., Suite 555, Los Altos, CA 94022.
For more information, visit channingarts.org


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