Prince William on final shift as pilot
LONDON — Prince William will completed his final shift in his job as an air ambulance pilot Thursday as he gets ready to take on more extensive royal duties.
The heir to the British throne is working the night shift at the East Anglian Air Ambulance, where he has been flying medical crews to emergencies such as traffic accidents for about two years.
“As I hang up my flight suit, I am proud to have served with such an incredible team of people, who save lives across the region every day,” he wrote in an exclusive story in the Eastern Daily Press, a newspaper that serves the community near the ambulance service’s base.
The announcement closes a chapter for William, 35, who is leaving the skies to return to formal duties as Britain’s future king. As the older generation of royals slows down, the younger members of the family are taking a greater number of official roles.
The prince’s move is also about location. William and his wife, the former Kate Middleton, will be spending less time in their Norfolk residence and be carrying out more duties in London, where their 4-yearold son, Prince George, is due to start school.
Despite William’s change in role, he said what he has seen as an ambulance pilot changed his perspective.
“I have had experiences in this job I will carry with me for the rest of my life, and that will add a valuable perspective to my royal work for decades to come,” he said in January. niece Robin Thaler said Thursday.
Foray was the best-known woman among the voice performers who contributed so much to the classic cartoons of Warner Bros., Disney, Hanna-Barbera and other studios. She had a galaxy of ways to create funny but believable characters, but could also be warm and wise in Disney’s “Mulan” or, in a memorable “Twilight Zone” episode, chilling.
She had over 300 credits as a voice actress, most recently doing one last turn as Rocky in a 2014 short.
Born in Springfield, Mass., Foray was a teenager when she moved with her parents to Los Angeles. She had begun performing in radio as a child in Massachusetts and, once in Hollywood, became active in major radio programs such as “The Jimmy Durante Show.” She later called old-time radio a great training ground, forcing her to learn to be versatile and quick-thinking.
In his 1989 memoir, “Chuck Amuck,” animator Chuck Jones noted “the highly talented and versatile Mel Blanc” did voices for Bugs, Daffy, Porky, Tweety, Yosemite Sam and others, “except female voices, which were done by the equally talented June Foray.”
Perhaps inevitably, Rocky — with his trademark exclamation “Hokey Smoke!” — was Foray’s favorite.
“Everybody asks me that,” she said in a 2000 Associated Press interview. “I think the fans kind of answer that for me. Everybody loves Rocky. . . . People don’t think of him as a squirrel. They think of him as a person. And he’s a good little person.”
The diminutive Foray wore a gold Rocky pendent around her neck that she delighted in pointing out to people.
In 1966, Foray was the voice of Cindy Lou Who in the much-revived TV holiday special “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” based on the Dr. Seuss book, directed by Jones and narrated by Boris Karloff.