Rush Limbaugh, Conservative Talk Radio Show Host, Dies At 70

PALM BEACH, FL — Renowned conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh has died, his family announced. He told listeners last year he had lung cancer. He was 70 years old.

Limbaugh's family posted a statement Wednesday on his show website: "We, the Limbaugh family, are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved Rush has died. Rush Hudson Limbaugh III will forever be the greatest of all time, a courageous brilliant gentle giant, and radio pioneer. Our entire family is so thankful to everyone who prayed and cared for Rush, especially the audience he adored. Rush's love for our country, and for all of you, will live on eternally."

In February 2020, Limbaugh told his radio listeners he was suffering from advanced lung cancer. Soon after, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom during President Donald Trump's State of the Union address.

"Here tonight is a special man beloved by millions of Americans, who just received a stage 4 advanced cancer diagnosis," Trump said at the time. "This is not good news. But what is good news is that he is the greatest fighter and winner that you will ever meet. Rush Limbaugh, thank you for your decades of tireless devotion to our country."

The political commentator received the nation's highest civilian honor "in recognition of all that you have done for our nation, the millions of people a day that you speak to, and that you inspire, and all of the incredible work that you have done for charity."

"The Rush Limbaugh Show" has been heard on 600 radio stations by up to 27 million people each week, the highest-rated national radio talk show in America, according to the show website.

Limbaugh's spiels during his three-hour weekday shows shaped the national political conversation, swaying ordinary Republicans and the direction of their party. He delivered his opinions with such certainty that his followers, or “Ditto-heads,” as he dubbed them, took his words as sacred truth.

“In my heart and soul, I know I have become the intellectual engine of the conservative movement,” Limbaugh told author Zev Chafets in the 2010 book “Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One.”

In 1994, Limbaugh was so widely credited with the first Republican takeover of Congress in 40 years that the GOP made him an honorary member of the new class.

For decades Limbaugh pinned insulting nicknames on his enemies and raged against the mainstream media, accusing it of feeding the public lies. He called Democrats and others on the left communists, wackos, feminazis, liberal extremists, homosexual slurs and radicals.

When actor Michael J. Fox, suffering from Parkinson’s disease, appeared in a Democratic campaign commercial, Limbaugh mocked his tremors. When a Washington advocate for the homeless killed himself, he cracked jokes. As the AIDS epidemic raged in the 1980s, he made the dying a punchline. He called 12-year-old Chelsea Clinton a dog.

When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, Limbaugh said: “I hope he fails."

Limbaugh was frequently accused of bigotry and blatant racism for such antics as playing the song “Barack the Magic Negro” on his show. The lyrics, set to the tune of “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” describe Obama as someone who “makes guilty whites feel good” and is “black, but not authentically.”

“What he did was to bring a paranoia and really mean, nasty rhetoric and hyperpartisanship into the mainstream,” said Martin Kaplan, a University of Southern California professor who is an expert on the intersection of politics and entertainment and a frequent critic of Limbaugh. “The kind of antagonism and vituperativeness that characterized him instantly became acceptable everywhere.”

In 2003, Limbaugh admitted an addiction to painkillers and went into rehab. Authorities investigated him for “doctor shopping,” saying he received up to 2,000 pills from four doctors over six months. Eventually, prosecutors agreed to drop the charge if Limbaugh continued with drug treatment and paid $30,000 toward the cost of the investigation.

Forbes magazine estimated Limbaugh's 2018 income at $84 million, ranking him behind only Howard Stern among radio personalities.

Limbaugh was awarded the Marconi Radio Award for Syndicated Radio Personality of the Year by the National Association of Broadcasters in 1992, 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2014. In 1993, he was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. Five years later, he was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

Limbaugh, who broadcast from Palm Beach, Florida, said he realized something was wrong during the weekend of his 69th birthday on Jan. 12, 2020. He said his diagnosis was confirmed by two medical institutions.

In 2013, Limbaugh said he began smoking cigarettes when he was 16 but quit in the early 1980s. He said he still enjoyed cigars though he claimed not to inhale.

"A cigar is not about nicotine. A cigarette's just a nicotine-delivery system," he said at the time. "A cigar is a refined, classic, handmade … It's a work of art, done right. And the experience, the aroma, smoking jackets and all that? I mean, it's nothing like smoking a cigarette."

In a 2001 article he penned for Cigar Aficionado, Limbaugh complained that too many Americans don't care if some constitutionally protected right or freedom, "such as smoking a cigar in a room designated for that specific purpose," is denied another American as long as they don't believe they are affected.

Limbaugh was divorced three times, after marrying Roxy Maxine McNeely in 1977, Michelle Sixta in 1983 and Marta Fitzgerald in 1994. He married his fourth wife, the former Kathryn Rogers, in a lavish 2010 ceremony featuring Elton John. He had no children.

Rush Hudson Limbaugh III was born Jan. 12, 1951, in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. His mother was the former Mildred Armstrong, and his father, Rush Limbaugh Jr., was a lawyer.

Limbaugh would turn down the radio during St. Louis Cardinals baseball games, offering play-by-play, and gave running commentary during the evening news. By high school, he had snagged a radio job.

Limbaugh dropped out of Southeast Missouri State University for a string of DJ gigs, from his hometown, to McKeesport, Pennsylvania, to Pittsburgh and then Kansas City. Known as Rusty Sharpe and then Jeff Christie on the air, he mostly spun Top 40 hits and sprinkled in glimpses of his wit and conservatism.

He left radio for several years, beginning in 1979, becoming promotions director for baseball’s Kansas City Royals. He ultimately returned to broadcasting, again in Kansas City and then Sacramento, California.

It was there in the early 1980s that Limbaugh really found an audience, broadcasting shows dripping with sarcasm and bravado. Limbaugh began broadcasting nationally in 1988 from WABC in New York. But a chilly reception from luminaries in the big city led Limbaugh to move his radio show to Palm Beach, where he bought a massive estate.

He had a late-night TV show in the 1990s that got decent ratings but little advertising because of his divisive message. Limbaugh was fired from a short-lived job as an NFL commentator on ESPN in 2003 after he said the media had made a star out of Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb because it was “very desirous that a Black quarterback do well.”

His racial remarks also derailed a 2009 bid to become one of the owners of the NFL’s St. Louis Rams.

This story contains reporting from The Associated Press.