Photo courtesy of LarryHagman.com

Last week, actor Larry Hagman passed away. After a celebrity passes away, the media loves to talk about them–talk about their perfectionism or lack there of, their wealth and their personal life. Well, here’s my brief tribute.

Back when I was a Disneyland Tour Guide in the 1990s, I had the privilege of serving as Larry Hagman’s VIP tour guide. Life as a VIP hostess can be very interesting and many former guides will tell you that it is not uncommon to encounter less than gracious VIP guests. It’s sad but true. While this is not the norm, it does happen and when it does, it jades the way you think about that person forever more. 

The mark of a good tour guest was someone who treated me with kindness and respect and Larry Hagman was one such guest. He was visiting that day with a woman and her two children (not a romantic thing) and we spent a leisurely day riding rides and taking frequent breaks to accommodate for Mr. Hagman’s frail health. The children were respectful and the entire tour was stress free. These types of tours were rare and it is with the fondness of memories that I look back on that afternoon.

Our tour was a short one, only four hours. As part of the tour, he and his party did not have to wait in lines for the attractions, so I encouraged him and his party to take advantage of our time and visit the most popular attractions. In spite of this, Mr. Hagman insisted we visit the Enchanted Tiki Room, his favorite Disneyland attraction. At the time, I was so surprised that someone would use our tour time when we could skip the lines to visit an attraction that has no line, but now that I’m older, I get how easy it is to become attached to an attraction and the desire to experience it and the memory of it. In fact, I don’t even bat an eyelash when my kids want to run to the Tiki Room first thing when we enter the park, in spite of the opportunity to visit other attractions first that may have longer waits later in the day. I just get it now.

I rarely visit the Tiki Room without thinking about Mr. Hagman and the fact that he loved the attraction so much. Rest in piece, Larry Hagman. Thank you for being a kind and respectful Disneyland guest and for pointing out that there’s no use putting off the things we love.