He was smart, had a lively personality and was willing to give a helping hand.
That’s how friends and colleagues remember John Fisher, co-owner at Fisher & Watkins Funeral Home and a former broadcaster, who died last week at a hospital in Virginia Beach at 68.
Fisher, who had been in declining health for the past several years, died after contracting COVID-19, said lifelong friend Tommy Bennett. Family members are not sure of the exact cause of death.
Fisher and Bennett, 66, grew up together in the Paxton Street area of Danville known as Bruce Town.
“He was the best friend that anyone could have,” Bennett recalled.
Bennett, president of the Danville branch of the NAACP, learned from Fisher not to worry about what others thought of him. Fisher stood by Bennett’s side when other kids in the neighborhood picked on him, Bennett said.
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“When you’re growing up and a little different, they sort of tease you and bully you,” said Bennett, who is gay. “John was always there for me. He told me, ‘Be who you are and do what you want to do in life.’”
One day when Bennett was about 12 or 13, a group of neighborhood boys were playing basketball in the backyard court his father had built for him. They refused to let Bennett play on his own court with his own ball, he recalled.
“He [Fisher] was like, ‘This is not going to happen,’” Bennett said. “He told me, ‘This is your backyard. You have full control of of what goes on in your yard. This is your court and your basketball. Never forget that.’”
Danville resident JoAnn Hickson, a long-time friend of Fisher’s, said she connected with him due to his desire to help others.
“This is how we bonded,” Hickson said Thursday. “He was always doing whatever he could to help people. He was always available to give me advice and direct me. He was such a loving, caring person and he cared about his community and the people who were the least.”
in 2004, Fisher wrote an article for Evince magazine about a business endeavor of Hickson’s, Wings Clothes Closet, that sold affordable clothing. The story also focused on a program Hickson started to help women in need.
Fisher attended George Washington High School before it was integrated, Bennett said. From there, he went to what was then Hampton Institute (now Hampton University).
Sixty-seven-year-old David Gibson was Fisher’s roommate during their freshman year at the school in 1973. They were also fraternity brothers.
“He is a guy that just was full of life, full of zest,” Gibson said. “He would walk into any room and talk to anybody in there. His conversational knowledge was the best. He was a fun guy to be around. He had a good sense of humor.”
They stayed in touch after their college days, Gibson said, recalling a funny line from Fisher when Gibson was visiting him in Danville. Fisher & Watkins Funeral Home, where Fisher was funeral director and vice president, was expanding.
“I said, ‘business must be good,’” Gibson said. “He [Fisher] said, ‘People are dying who have never died before.’”
Fisher, who Gibson said was “quite a flirt,” was given the nickname “Tyrone,” after the classic Hollywood heartthrob Tyrone Power.
While in high school, Fisher started out working in radio at WILA, where he was “The New and Improved Garry Groove,” Gibson said.
“His lifelong interest was in broadcasting,” he said.
After college, he worked in television news for outlets in Norfolk and Syracuse, New York. He was also a Fort Worth bureau chief for a CBS affiliate station in Dallas.
Fisher also was the first Danville native to work for WSET in Lynchburg, said his ex-wife, Lynne Fisher.
“He never met a stranger and had such a presence on TV,” Lynne Fisher said Thursday.
When he auditioned for the job in Syracuse, the stagehands clapped after he finished.
“He had such a profound delivery when he did the news,” she said. “They [the crew] were so blown away.”
Fisher’s daughter, Michelle Fisher, said she originally wanted to go to law school, but decided to enter broadcast journalism after encouragement from her father.
“He always encouraged me to follow in his footsteps,” said Michelle, 33, an anchor and a host for the Black News Channel in Tallahassee, Florida. “Eventually, I listened to him.”
His outgoing personality and social connections made her mom joke that he was “the mayor of Danville,” Michelle said.
“He had such a big personality,” she said.
Cynthia Hughes recalled when Fisher’s father worked for Cunningham & Hughes Funeral Home in Danville, where she was funeral director and an embalmer. Fisher, then a child, was frequently at the business.
“He was a part of the funeral home,” Hughes said of John Fisher.
Fisher’s father would later open Fisher & Watkins Funeral Home with Waverly Watkins in 1979.
Following his career in broadcast journalism, Fisher returned home to work at his father’s business. But he continued his work in the news industry, writing occasionally for the Danville Register & Bee and anchoring part-time for WBTM/WAKG.
Fisher was also a member of the Virginia Morticians Association and served as president of the Western District Funeral Directors in 2013 and 2014.
Fisher & Watkins funeral director and general manager Sandra Hairston described Fisher as “bubbly.”
“He had a contagious smile,” Hairston said during an interview at the funeral home Thursday afternoon.
She and Kimberly Watkins, secretary-treasurer and office manager at Fisher & Watkins, recalled his humor.
“He kept us laughing all the time,” Hairston said, adding that his jokes were not fit for publication. “He had quite a vocabulary.”
Watkins added, “He loved to cuss. He could roll them out quick.”
Fisher, even while sick, never lost his sense of mischief, Bennett said.
“Even in the nursing home, he was cutting up and cracking jokes,” Bennett said.