June 28, 2009 - Death of a GREAT Salesman

Wow. It just got interesting. My post last week indicated “Celebrities Die in Threes.” Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson passed on last week.

Now comes word that Billy Mays, the burly, bearded television pitchman whose boisterous hawking of products such as Orange Glo and OxiClean made him a pop-culture icon, has died. Arthur Miller would need to rewrite his play, if it was about Billy Mays.

Should 2 more celebrities be nervous or was Ed McMahon over rated?

As a former salesman, I always liked Billy Mays. I watched him on the new Conan O’Brien Tonight Show last week and he was engaging and funny.

Mays was only 50 (same as Jackson). It was not immediately clear how Mays died. He said he was hit on the head when an airplane he was on made a rough landing Saturday, and his wife, Deborah Mays, told investigators he didn't feel well before he went to bed about 10 p.m. that night.

My condolences to the Mays family. Billy was truly was one of the good guys.