Ted Turner

By Tom Kirvan

A visionary media mogul whose name has been emblazoned on various cable television networks, Ted Turner turned 86 on November 19, undoubtedly marking the date with a renewed sense of purpose to bring heightened awareness to Lewy Body Dementia, the debilitating illness he has suffered from since his 2018 diagnosis.

Born in Cincinnati in 1938, Turner began building his media empire in the early 1960s after his father’s suicide, eventually expanding the billboard business into a broadcasting conglomerate that included CNN, TBS, and TCM (Turner Classic Movies). As Turner’s wealth and influence grew, so did his interest in sports, as he bought both the Atlanta Braves baseball team and the Atlanta Hawks basketball franchise, related moves that produced a World Series title for the Braves in 1995.

Ted Turner*

An avid sailor who won the America’s Cup in 1977, Turner has also been a noted philanthropist, donating $1 billion to create the United Nations Foundation, a nonprofit founded to help the UN address such global issues as climate change, gender equality, public health, human rights, and environmental causes.

The former husband of renowned actress Jane Fonda, Turner attended Brown University but was expelled from the Ivy League school for having a female student in his dormitory room. In 1989, Turner was awarded an honorary bachelor’s degree from Brown when he returned to campus to give a speech at a conference of the National Association of College Broadcasters, giving testament to the time-honored phrase “let bygones be bygones.”

Known in some circles as “The Mouth of the South” and “Captain Outrageous,” Turner readily acknowledged his penchant for enjoying the trappings of the limelight, admitting, “If I only had a little humility, I’d be perfect.”

Some of his other gems:

“Life is a game. Money is how we keep score.”
“The United States has got some of the dumbest people in the world. I want you to know that we know that.”
“Men should be disqualified for public office. Women should run the planet. They’re better than us.”
“Life is like a B-movie. You don’t want to leave in the middle of it, but you don’t want to see it again.”
“The biggest thing I learned from losing? Winning’s better.”