'The Waltons' Dad Ralph Waite Dies At Age 85

Ralph Waite, known to millions as John Walton Sr. on the warmhearted 1970s TV series The Waltons – and, more recently, as the Mark Harmon character's father, Jackson "Jack" Gibbs, on the CBS hit NCIS – died at his Palm Desert home at about 11 a.m. Thursday, according to the Desert Sun. He was 85.

The paper reports that his longtime friend, Jerry Preece, showed up for a lunch and movie date only to find ambulances and Waite's wife, Linda Waite, at the house.

"She just told me she thought he’d passed," said Preece, who ascribed his friend's death to a "tired heart. … This last year or two, he had really gotten closer to realizing that his body was wearing out." 
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