Marcus Bartlett

Family-Placed Death Notice

BARTLETT, Marcus MARCUS BARTLETT Marcus Bartlett was a broadcasting and cable television pioneer whose career included calling play-by-play on the first UGA, Georgia Tech, and Gator Bowl radio broadcasts, serving as WSB TV's first program director, helping advance the careers of Tom Brokaw and Deborah Norville, winning an Emmy award for lifetime achievement and guiding the development of Cox Cable, one of the nation's largest cable companies. Above all, family and friends remember Mark Bartlett as a dedicated father and grandfather who was committed to the church throughout his life. Bartlett died of natural causes Thursday at the age of 98 at his home in Buckhead. A memorial service with visitation afterward will be held Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m. at H.M. Patterson and Son-Oglethorpe Hill Chapel on Peachtree Road. Bartlett, who graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Emory University, said he "fell into radio" in 1928 as a performer at WSB, only six years after the station began broadcasting. A piano prodigy by age 18, the Richland, Georgia native joined an Atlanta dance band that appeared on the late night WSB "RadioOwls" program. In 1930, WSB's founder Lambdin Kay hired Bartlett as a temp for $25 a week to host a nightly program called Bookhouse Story Time, where he read bedtime stories on the air. "They were having trouble finding people who could talk and play piano at the same time, and they didn't want to hire two people," Bartlett recalled. Bartlett, who hadn't been allowed to say his name on the air, gained his first fame during a newspaper strike in Atlanta, when he read the comics over the radio as "Uncle Mark." During this period, he was organist for the Baptist Tabernacle with its 100-voice choir on Luckie Street in downtown Atlanta and later at the Second Ponce De Leon Baptist Church in Buckhead. He was most recently a member of the Johnson Ferry Baptist Church. In the early 1930s, Bartlett did play-by-play for both the University of Georgia Bulldogs and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football teams at a time when the schools ddidn't employ announcers of their own. He recalled, "There was a hesitation to put the games on the radio for fear it would hurt attendance." When WSB TV began operating in 1948, Bartlett helped develop programs for the fledgling station including a morning talk program, "Today in Georgia" and the daily afternoon children's shows Woody Willow and Officer Don Kennedy's Popeye Club. He was also instrumental in hiring Tom Brokaw, the future NBC anchorman and longtime WSB TV news anchor Monica Pearson. Brokaw said of Bartlett, "Mark was a great role model because he expected the rest of us to love broadcasting as much as he did - and because he never tired of encouraging us to keep our standards high. I rarely thought of him as a boss; he was a friend, a gentleman of the old school." In the early 1960s, Bartlett was assigned to help guide Cox's expansion into cable television and set the foundation for the new cable industry. For 51 years, Bartlett and his wife Mamie Ruth traveled the world with their five children, and later with his grandchildren, visiting every continent except Antarctica. In the mid 1970s, Bartlett retired from Cox and became a visiting professor at the University of Georgia where he counseled students including Georgia native Deborah Norville, now host of the syndicated TV series, Inside Edition. "He set such an example of integrity," Norville says. "He taught me about how broadcasting should always be in the public interest. I am so grateful to have known such a great man." By the late 1970s, Bartlett used his experiences traveling the world to help customers at Osborne Travel. Mimi Davenport, a fellow travel consultant at Osborne who had lunch with him nearly every day for 10 years recalls, "I learned something every day. He was a Biblical scholar who was so interested in things, it made him interesting." Son Bill Bartlett said of his father, "He was our idol, our confidante, our friend and our dad. He was patient, calm, supportive and genuinely interested in each of his five kids and their many issues, ideas, interests, problems and opportunities. He was always there for us with a warm smile and a friendly encouraging word. He instilled in us to always do our best in everything we did at the same time remaining honest and ethical while doing it. We have met so many people over the years who have told us how much he has touched and influenced their lives as well. We are not mourning his passing but instead are celebrating his accomplished and special life. We are proud to say he was our Father and his wonderful spirit will continue to live in each of us." Former WSB radio general manager Elmo Ellis profiled Bartlett in a chapter of his book, The Youthful Option. "He didn't change as he got older," wrote Ellis. "He was never focused on regrets or losses." "What's done is done. I wake up every morning expecting to have a good day," said Bartlett, "and I usually do." In an interview for an upcoming Georgia Public Broadcasting documentary, Bartlett said of his career, "I have a very strong feeling that everything that happened to me was, if you want to call it, predestination. I believe I had a plan set for me from the word go." Survivors are his five children, sons Bill, Bruce, Blair, and Brian, and daughter Ann Bartlett Cannon, all of Atlanta, 12 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. H.M. Patterson and Son, Oglethorpe Hill Chapel, 4550 Peachtree Road, NE, Atlanta, GA 30319.