I received an e-mail from Toby's wife Linda last night saying that Toby had passed on Monday the 13th from heart failure. Toby wrote many articles and features for Hot Rod Mechanix and many other Magazines in the mid to late 90's. He documented our Bonneville adventures and was an all around great guy, a true hard core hot rodder and a great friend. God speed my old friend, you will be missed.
Linda, sorry to hear about Toby's passing. We visited you guy's in the late 90's, when you guys lived in Newport beach Cal. Toby really went out of his way to show us lots of hot rods and also meet lots of his friends, one was Bruce Geisler which is saltracer219 partner. They were good times spend with Linda and Toby. I meet Toby through Lance Sorchik and he was into real old time hot rods that we all like, RIP Toby Brown
I never met Toby, but felt connected somehow because of his writings about growing up in Oklahoma. I enjoyed his automotive journalism in American Rodder and HotRodMechanix. However after reading this article in our Tulsa World today I realized that he was a man many of us probably never even heard about. I had just recently seen a reference to his retiring to Wagoner Ok and had hopes that I might even get to meet him someday. Sorry to say that will never happen. Here is the article. Services set for Thomas Lester "Toby" Brown, 67 He shared five Emmy Awards with his CBS colleagues. Services set for Thomas Lester "Toby" Brown, 67 By TIM STANLEY World Staff Writer TulsaWorld.com posted 21 hours ago January 18th, 2014. Updated 22 hours ago <!-- Services set for Thomas Lester "Toby" Brown, 67 -->Former Tulsan Toby Brown (center) is pictured on the first day of shooting for The Ropers, a short-lived spinoff of the sitcom Threes Company, on which he worked. An Emmy-winning cameraman with CBS who had retired to Wagoner, Brown, 67, died Tuesday. Courtesy <!--Life story--> <DL id=story-font-size class="moz-border blox-social-tools-horizontal"> <DT>Print <DD id=print-hardcopy>Create a hardcopy of this page <DT>Font Size: <DD>Default font size <DD>Larger font size </DD></DL> <!-- (START) Pagination Wrapper --><!-- (START) Pagination Content Wrapper -->WAGONER - It was no easy thing, going from zooming in on Dinah Shore and her latest guest to keeping up with Carol Burnett's zany troupe of sketch comics. For a long time, that was what Toby Brown's week looked like. But while the hours could be long, the former Tulsan and former KTUL, Channel 8, cameraman loved his work. "He never had a better time than that period," said his wife, Linda Brown. Along with the miles of footage he shot over his two decades in Hollywood, Brown had miles of memories to match, she added. A five-time Emmy Award-winning cameraman with CBS who later retired to Wagoner, Thomas Lester "Toby" Brown died Tuesday. He was 67. A memorial service is set for 2 p.m. Saturday at the First Presbyterian Church under the direction of Hersman-Nichols Funeral Home. A native of Bartlesville and graduate of College High School there, Brown studied radio and television at Oklahoma State University. After his first job with a Muskogee radio station, he got on at KTUL, where he spent four years working with news anchorman Bob Hower. From there, Brown ran his own agency, writing and producing commercials. Then, with Hower's help, he left Tulsa for a television job in San Diego. That soon led to landing his dream job, as a cameraman for one of the big networks. As a new hire with CBS, Brown started out shooting game shows, including "The Price Is Right," where he got to know host Bob Barker. For a couple of years, his regular week consisted of three days shooting Dinah Shore's daytime talk show and two days on "The Carol Burnett Show." He witnessed television history in the making, including Burnett's legendary "Gone With the Wind" spoof, for which he was one of the cameramen. Brown and Shore became close pals. They regularly went out for burgers after shooting and remained friends until her death. "I always knew if he was going to leave me for someone, it would be Dinah," Brown's wife joked. Brown worked on various other shows and projects through the years. Ultimately, he shared five Emmy Awards with his CBS colleagues four for work on daytime soap operas and one for a prime-time music special starring Neil Diamond. By the early 1990s, however, the heavy physical toll of the work, combined with the unsettled atmosphere in the wake of the Los Angeles riots, had Brown thinking it was time for a change. He retired in 1994. Then, the next year, he and his wife watched the Oklahoma City bombing coverage on television. "We saw how the people of Oklahoma responded how they came together," Linda Brown said. "I remember Toby saying, 'We need to go back.' " Soon thereafter, the couple found a place outside of Wagoner. The Browns, who had met at OSU and were engaged within weeks, were definitely the exception in Hollywood, an environment that didn't exactly promote fidelity, said Linda Brown, a Tulsa native. Part of their secret, she added, was spending time together. They shared a passion for rescue dogs and building hot rods. The cars were a longtime interest, and Toby Brown also took photos and wrote articles for hot rod magazines. In retirement, he also wrote columns about growing up in Bartlesville, where he had fond memories. Linda Brown said her husband thought about his friends in California often. "He did miss the work, but he loved being here," she said. Toby Brown's survivors include his wife of 45 years, Linda Brown; and two sisters, Nancy Nelson and Sarah Jane Baker. Tim Stanley 918-581-8385 [email protected] <!-- Print Edition Section and Page: A14 --> <!-- (END) Pagination Content Wrapper --><!-- Pagination controls --> <!-- (END) Pagination Wrapper -->
Okiedokie: thanks for the picture and the bio on Toby. I was at he and Lindas Newport Beach place several times and saw the emmy's on the mantle. He talked some about his past but did not go into great detail except that he was injured on the job when a camera fell. And that he was friends with Dinah. He and Linda spent some time up hare in Washington with us during one of our Bonneville thrashes and did some mag. features of some of our SLO-POKS cars while he was here. He was a great friend and super guy. Thanks again for filling in the blanks, G. Vail....
sorry to hear of Toby's passing. I always enjoyed his writings. never knew he had such an interesting life. sorry again. R.I.P
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