Casey Kasem

(DEARBORN, MI) — Funeral services will be held Sunday for American entertainment icon and proud Arab American Casey Kasem, who died Sunday in a Washington State hospital following a long illness. He was 82.

The service will be held at the American Druze Society’s cultural center in Eagle Rock, Calif. Kasem was an active member of the Druze, a religious community with ancestral ties to present-day Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine. He was a founding member of the American Druze Foundation and played an integral role in establishing the Society’s Southern California cultural center.

Manal Saab, who chairs both the American Druze Foundation board and the Arab American National Museum’s National Advisory Board, was a personal friend of Kasem’s. She recalls his dedication to his faith and community. “Casey was different than most celebrities. He always picked up the phone and he never said no to helping. My husband Ghassan and I had a personal relationship with Casey. He was Lebanese, Druze, and from Michigan. Casey had the chance to visit Lebanon with his family in 1997, and the Lebanese people embraced him with relentless celebration.”

Casey Kasem has long been celebrated as an iconic voice of American radio and music, and is also recognized as one of the most famous Arab Americans. He was born Kamel Amin Kasem in Detroit on April 27, 1932, to Lebanese immigrant father and Lebanese American mother. Like many Arab immigrants to Detroit at that time, Casey’s father Amin owned a grocery store. In the 1950s, his mother and aunt owned a grocery store in Fenton, Mich. (near Flint), where Arab immigrants were also succeeding in the grocery business.

Kasem is a graduate of Wayne State University in Detroit, where he began his career by performing bit parts in radio dramas. He is a veteran of the U.S. Army who served as a DJ during the Korean War. In the summer of 1970, in collaboration with fellow Arab American broadcaster Don Bustany and other partners, Kasem launched his syndicated radio program, American Top 40, on just five radio stations. Soon the program was heard “coast to coast” on hundreds of stations and later became a TV show. Classic episodes remain on the air today. Kasem also had a successful career as a voice-over actor, most notably as an NBC announcer and the voice of Shaggy (“Zoinks!”) on the children’s cartoon Scooby Do, Where Are You!.

In addition to his numerous accolades and awards, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1981) and induction into the Radio Hall of Fame (1992), Kasem has always been proud of his Arab heritage. “Whenever I can,” he said in a 1983 interview, “I like to let people know that I am Lebanese, that I am Arabic, and that’s my heritage. I’m an American first, but at the same time I feel strong ties going way back.” Several obituaries recount how Kasem’s entertainment career was inspired by listening to his older relatives’ one-upsmanship style of storytelling as a kid.

Throughout his career, Casey Kasem fought against media stereotyping of Arabs and Arab Americans, and has always encouraged young Arab American media producers. He has given selflessly to many Arab American causes, including the Arab American National Museum, lending his sonorous voice to its Making An Impact permanent exhibit and donating multiple items for display, including his Hollywood Walk of Fame plaque and the American Top 40 sign that hung on the program’s Ventura Boulevard studio in Los Angeles. Kasem has been an honorary member of the AANM’s National Advisory Board since the Museum opened in 2005.

“I fondly recall listening to American Top 40 as a child,” says Devon Akmon, AANM director. “Knowing that Casey and I shared our Lebanese heritage gave me a great sense of pride from an early age. His contributions to American popular culture and his advocacy for the Arab American community will be forever celebrated at the AANM.”

Casey Kasem’s legacy also includes the new $2 million Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Druze and Arab Studies at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, a first-of-its-kind program. Casey’s daughter, Kerri, also a great friend of the Arab American National Museum, is following in her father’s footsteps professionally and through her community involvement.

Source: Arab American National Museum

Casey Kasem, a radio voice who connected generations of Americans to thousands of rock and pop acts, died Sunday morning, according to multiple media outlets. He was 82.

Kerri Kasem, Casey’s daughter, announced the news on her Facebook page.

“Early this Father’s Day morning, our dad Casey Kasem passed away surrounded by family and friends. Even though we know he is in a better place and no longer suffering, we are heartbroken,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “Thank you for all your love, support and prayers. The world will miss Casey Kasem, an incredible talent and humanitarian; we will miss our Dad.”

Kasem, hospitalized in Washington state since June 1, had been in declining health.

The longtime host of radio’s American Top 40, which he started in 1970, was a familiar voice to millions, known for his signature closing advice: “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.” Over the years, he hosted other versions of the music countdown show on radio and television.

The Detroit native, a son of Lebanese immigrants, also was an actor who did frequent voiceover work, including commercials and cartoon characters, most memorably Shaggy from the Scooby-Doo series.

Kasem had been in the news recently with his care the focus of a litigious dispute between his wife, Jean Kasem, and his grown children. For a time earlier this year, his children did not know his whereabouts.

The retired host was taken to a hospital following a dispute between Kerri and Jean.

A judge ruled June 11 that Kerri was allowed to withhold medication, food and fluids from her father, who was ailing from sepsis and dementia, as well as Parkinson’s.

Shortly after the judge’s ruling, Kerri wrote on Facebook, “For people who do not understand the natural dying process: Giving food and water to a dying body creates pain and further suffering. The body does not want or require food or water anymore in the dying process. My father can no longer digest foods and fluids fill his lungs up and will suffocate him. My Dad IS on pain meds.”

Kasem, known for his sonorous voice and a member of the National Radio Hall of Fame and the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, served as a disc jockey and radio announcer while serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and he began his professional radio career in the 1950s.

In 1970, he started the iconic American Top 40, in which he introduced and then played the country’s top-selling singles, offering nuggets of information about the songs and performers and the occasional “long-distance dedication” from a fan. Top 40 ran until 1988, with Kasem reviving it in 1998 after hosting versions with other titles in the interim. Ryan Seacrest, a next-generation host, took over the franchise in 2004.

A spinoff of his popular radio show was the syndicated television series America’s Top 10, which Kasem hosted through the 1980s. The show recapped the top 10 songs on various music charts, including rock, country and soul. Kasem brought elements of the radio broadcast to television, including answering questions with sometimes obscure facts about musical acts.

Kasem was also an outspoken advocate on issues. A member of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, he was critical of Hollywood’s portrayal of Arabs in film. His activism was not limited. In 1989, he told then-USA TODAY columnist Larry King that one of his “proudest moments” was being arrested for protesting a nuclear weapons installation. “I’d do it again, gladly,” Kasem told King.

USA Today