“He would ask that his passing not be mourned, but rather that his memory be celebrated fondly for every little ray of sunshine he was able to spread while he was here,” said Russ Locke, 58, of Tujunga, eldest son of the comedian, entertainer and local celebrity.
Although he was known for most of his life as Ormly Gumfudgin, Locke was named after his father. He was born to Clarence Stanley and Marie Mulkey Locke on Nov. 4, 1922 in Aberdeen, Wash., and grew up in the nearby Lake Quinault area.
He has a sister, Marion “Mernie” Matthews, 82, of Shelton, Wash.
After graduating in the top ten of his high school class — of seven students — Locke earned a bachelor’s degree in communication from Washington State University, in Pullman.
It was there he met his wife of 64 years, Edith “Edi” Bennett. The couple met while staging a school production of “Arsenic & Old Lace.” Locke had a role in the play and his future bride was on stage crew.
Edith Locke recalls that in addition to her husband’s popular work as a radio DJ at the school, he also had a part-time job as the furnace boy in her sorority house, which helped spark the relationship.
While at the university, Locke was a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity and he had a morning radio show called Googy’s Coffee Pot Parade, which played mainly swing music, which was the popular style of the day.
Locke is still known to family and friends as “Googy,” from that radio persona, but known to those outside the family, with the name he later chose, Ormly Gumfudgin.
