John O. Whedon; Radio, TV Writer

John Ogden Whedon, who wrote for radio’s most popular pomposity, “The Great Gildersleeve,” has died at a nursing home in Medford, Ore.

Whedon, who wrote extensively for both radio and television in a 40-year career, was 86 when he died Friday.

His daughter, Jill Whedon, said her father was a 1927 Harvard University graduate who became an editor at the New Yorker magazine before moving into radio script writing with “The Chase and Sanborn Hour,” “The Circle,” “The Rudy Vallee Hour” and “Music in the Air.”

He joined the “Gildersleeve” staff in 1942, a year after Harold Peary, who created the character, left the “Fibber McGee and Molly” show and went on his own.

Whedon also wrote for the stage--”Life’s Too Short” and “Texas Li’l Darlin’ “--for Disney films--”The Bears and I” and “Island at the Top of the World”--and episodes of such TV series as “Young Dr. Kildare,” “Room 222,” “That Girl,” “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “The Donna Reed Show,” “Kraft Television Theater,” “Leave It to Beaver” and “U.S. Steel Hour.”

In 1956 he was nominated for an Emmy for “A Night to Remember,” a “Kraft Television Theatre” drama.

Survivors include his daughter, son Tom Whedon, four stepchildren, 12 grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, a sister and a brother.