Joe Negri, known to many within Pittsburgh as Handyman Negri on “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,” has died at the age of 99, just days shy of his 100th birthday, Fred Rogers Productions confirmed to KDKA-TV on Sunday evening.
Negri was a broadcasting pioneer, an accomplished musician, a Pittsburgh icon, and someone many children grew up watching on TV.
For more than 30 years, when children across America tuned in to “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,” they often saw Handyman Negri tinkering on things in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.
Negri, who played the character, always said playing the role of a handyman was make-believe for sure, since he wasn’t handy at all in real life.
“I said, ‘Fred, I’m not handy at all. I can’t even hammer a nail.’ And he said, ‘Don’t worry about a thing, it’s going to be all pretend,'” Negri said in a prior interview with KDKA-TV.
While he wasn’t handy in terms of fixing things, Negri was good with his hands on the guitar.
Eventually, “Handyman Negri” ended up running “Negri’s Music Shop” on the show, getting to perform with legendary musicians like Wynton Marsalis, Johnny Costa, and Yo-Yo Ma.
“I’m glad he gave me the music shop because it gave me a really good opportunity to utilize my music,” Negri recalled.
Music was Negri’s passion. He lived and breathed it his entire life.
Born in 1926 in Pittsburgh, Negri began performing on the radio at just 3 years old.
“And I sang. So, my dad, rather than have to worry about the pianist accompanying me, put a ukulele in my hands, and he started teaching me the songs, and I would accompany myself on a ukulele.”
Eventually, he switched to guitar, and in the 1950s, during the early days of KDKA-TV, Negri and his trio regularly appeared on “The Buzz and Bill Show.”
“We did our show there at 6 o’clock in the evening, and we were followed by a fellow named Slim Bryant and the Wildcats. There in that hour that is now the big news hour was a music hour,” Negri said with a laugh.
Negri also performed on various other shows in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
But in 1968, when “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” debuted on WQED, Fred Rogers created the role of “Handyman Negri” specifically for him, a role he’d go on to play for nearly 35 years.
“It was a great experience, no kidding,” he said of his time on the show.
Off stage, Negri also taught jazz guitar for nearly 50 years at the University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne, and Carnegie Mellon University, continuing to teach well into his 90s before retiring in 2019.
But the lessons Joe Negri taught countless children on television and students in his classroom will leave a lasting imprint of a legendary career and a legacy that will never be forgotten.