WASHINGTON — Joe Negri, the jazz guitarist who played Handyman Negri on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” has died. He was 99.
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Lisa Negri, his eldest daughter, told TribLIVE he died of natural causes as the family was getting ready to celebrate his 100th birthday on June 10.
Negri was well known in his community where he spent most of his life. He was an adjunct faculty member at University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University for decades where he taught jazz guitar. He founded the program at Duquesne and retired in 2022 after nearly 50 years of teaching, according to TribLIVE.
He began playing music when his father gifted him a ukulele when he was 3 years old, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported.
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Over the next few years, Negri would perform on local radio station programs and for dancers like Fred and Gene Kelly at clubs.
He later got into dancing, performing with other instruments — like his guitar, which he is known best for — and performing for larger crowds.
Negri spent more than three decades on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” as a “jazz guitarist and friendly neighbor” known as Handyman Negri, according to the show’s website. He was on the show for its entirety — 31 seasons, running from 1968 until 2001.
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