And from Jon Belmont himself comes an e-mail…
i'd been joking in speeches and on that air that bob hope planned to get back at me by outliving me. like mark twain and — until sunday night — ole bob, i'm glad that reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated.
So am I. We've never met but I instinctively feel sorry for a newsman who is handed an erroneous report and reads it in the line of work. People forget that it was someone else on the chain-of-command who actually made the mistake. In this case, it apparently started with a speech on the floor of the House by then-Congressman Bob Stump. And it wasn't even his fault. According to this article…
The Republican had been asked by then-Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, to make the announcement on the House floor. Staff members had alerted Armey to the news on June 5, 1998, after seeing Hope's obituary posted on the Web site of the Associated Press. The story had been posted by mistake, however. It was advance material not intended for publication until the comedian's death.
The latest confusion seems to stem from the fact that Bob Hope outlived Bob Stump, who passed away about a month ago. The person who reminded me of the incident apparently mixed up just who it was who had announced Hope's demise only to be outlived by him.
Anyway, Mr. Belmont, thanks for the note and my apologies for the error. Your colleague at WTMJ radio, Rob Hart, also wrote to tell me of his shock at your death and said he hoped it wouldn't interfere with your lunch date tomorrow. He said the tape gets frequent play in your newsroom, so apparently Bob Hope was able to provoke laughter merely by not dying.