Joanne Rogers and Fred Rogers were born just 11 days apart and they would spend 50 years together, supporting one another’s dreams and aspirations. They shared two children, sons James (born in 1959) and John (in 1961). Rogers once told author Maxwell King, “We waited until we were married about seven years before our kids came along. And I’ve always been glad of that, because we knew that the marriage was going to be okay” (via Biography).

In the 1970s, Joanne Rogers resumed her music career, touring with fellow pianist Jeannine Morrison around the country. Morrison told the Times in 2019, “Over the next 36 years we played over 300 concerts.” Of her beloved piano, Rogers confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that she and her husband had dueling pianos side-by-side. “We did!,” she said. “That was my thing! Sometimes I’d be learning something and I’d say, ‘Come here and learn this other part!'”

Fred Rogers died on February 27, 2003, of stomach cancer, survived by Joanne Rogers and their two sons. Afterwards, Joanne Rogers served as the keeper of his memory and his legacy, telling EW in 2019 that she firmly believed there were other “Fred Rogerses out there.” Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was filmed at WQED studios in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In his statement on Joanne Rogers’ passing, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto said, “Through her grace, humor and down-to-earth demeanor Joanne Rogers personified what we love about the City of Pittsburgh. As the partner of Fred Rogers for a half-century she helped champion his good works to a global audience” (via CBS Pittsburgh).