The Louisville community suffered a huge loss today with the death of Francene Cucinelli, a talk show host at WHAS. Whether the topic was sports or politics, Francene had done her home work and provided a tremendous forum for discussing the issues.
The observer was fortunate to have attended a Francene appearance, and she was as outgoing as she was intelligent. She was in the mold of Milton Metz, one of her local talk show predecessors, who gave callers the opportunity to voice their views without disconnecting the telephone, a rare ocurrence these days.
Among her many community involvement activities was providing assistance to senior citizens through Annie’s Angels, a program run by University of Louisville fans Joey and Lisa Strader at Annie’s Attic. The program was an overwhelming success, thanks to her support.
Thanks for enriching our lives, Francene. Our sympathies to your many friends and fans.
I am at a loss for words. I will miss my e-mail exchanges with her, our wine spritzers over at the Parrish House on game day and her spirit.
I will miss my friend.
She will be missed. I was also fortunate enough to meet her a couple of times during her way too short time on this earth. I am stunned, saddened but very thankful for the time we had to know her. I wish it could have been longer.
RIP, Francene. You were a favorite of both Sonja and I.
I was just reading about this over at the cj. How shocking. She’s younger than I am. I didn’t listen to her all the time, but did occasionally. Nobody 43 is supposed to die from a heart attack. I feel so badly for her family and friends, they must be in shock.