Chicago TV Host's Parents Shot to Death
A Chicago TV host and advocate for non-violence is recovering today from the news that both his parents were shot to death this week.
Garrard McClendon, host of “Garrard McClendon Live!,” learned that the vehicle of his parents Milton and Ruby McClendon was discovered this morning in woods near Calumet City, Ill. The Hammond, Ind. couple was found dead on Monday, and a Tuesday autopsy showed that Milton McClendon was shot once in the head. His wife was shot multiple times. Both were in their 70s.
Sentiments of comfort from viewers were offered to Garrard McClendon through the WGN TV Web site, with many offering prayers and expressions of sadness. Apart from hosting his own show, McClendon is a regular guest in Chicago-area media, where he often speaks about issues relevant to Black current affairs.
McClendon is an author and professor at Loyola University, as well as a bi-monthly editorial contributor to The Northwest Indiana Times newspaper. McClendon’s parents were reported to have been among the first Black residents of Hammond. Investigators say they don’t know whether the killings were linked to Garrard McClendon or his work.
The McClendon tragedy marks the second high-profile death connected with a prominent Black journalist in 2009: Don Diva magazine’s Sam Ferguson was shot to death on a Florida highway months after he made a name for himself by breaking the story that rapper Rick Ross was previously a corrections officer.
