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Former Wiener Magnate Oscar Mayer Dies

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Jul 8, 2009 9:35 am US/Eastern

Former Wiener Magnate Oscar Mayer Dies

Oscar G. Mayer, Jr., Was Grandson Of Company Founder, 3rd Mayer To Serve As Chairman

MADISON, Wis. (CBS) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 3: This famous 1976 television commercial featuring "The Bologna Song" debuted while Oscar G. Mayer, Jr., was chairman of the food company that bears his name. Mayer died July 6, 2009, at age 95, 32 years after retiring. The company is now part of Kraft.
Oscar Mayer Foods
Click to enlarge 2 of 3: The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile was introduced in 1936 and remains an integral part of the product's marketing efforts.
AP
Click to enlarge 3 of 3: OM

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Oscar G. Mayer, Jr., retired chairman of the Wisconsin-based meat processing company that bears his name, has died at the age of 95.

Mayer's wife, Geraldine, said he died of old age Monday age at Hospice Care in Fitchburg, Wis.

He was the third Oscar Mayer in the family that founded Oscar Mayer Foods, which was once the largest private employer in Madison, the state capital of Wisconsin. His grandfather, Oscar F. Mayer, died in 1955 and his father, Oscar G. Mayer Sr., died in 1965.

In 1976, During Mayer, Jr.'s, tenure as chairman, the company debuted its famous "The Bologna Song" television commercial, featuring a small boy eating a bologna sandwich while fishing and singing:

My bologna has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R.
My bologna has a second name, it's M-A-Y-E-R.
Oh, I love to eat it every day,
And if you ask my why I'll say:
'Cause Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A.

The company's other famous ad tune, "The Oscar Mayer Wiener Jingle©," debuted in 1963, when Mayer, Jr.'s, father was chairman.

Mayer, Jr., retired as chairman of the board in 1977 at age 62 soon after the company recorded its first $1 billion year. The company was later sold to General Foods and is now a business unit of Kraft Foods.

Mayer's first wife, Rosalie, died in 1998. He married Geraldine Fitzpatrick in 1999.