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by Maria Puente, USA TODAY .
Few faces could be more familiar to more Americans than longtime NBC weatherman Willard Scott, after 65 years at the network and 35 with the Today show.
But we won’t be seeing him on TV anymore; Scott, 81, and NBC announced Friday he’s retiring, hopefully to someplace with no weather to speak of (i.e., not Florida).
The news should be a blow to American centenarians or those soon to become one; saluting people who had reached the age of 100 had been Scott’s special task in recent years.
The Today show plans a send-off tribute to Scott’s work on Tuesday.
The genial Scott was the show’s signature weatherman until he announced his semi-retirement in 1996, when Al Roker took over the job.
In recent years, Scott has appeared once or twice a week to mark the 100th birthdays of viewers. He began working at NBC as a 16-year-old page in the network’s Washington bureau.
Scott, by the way, got married last year, at the age of 80. He and longtime partner Paris Keena were married in Fort Myers, Fla., after 11 years together.
USA TODAY
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