Fess Parker, a TV icon of the 1950s and '60s who later helped Santa Barbara raise its profile as a world-class wine region, has died. He was 85. Parker had been in failing health in recent months and was under hospice care at his home in the Santa Ynez Valley when he passed away this morning.

The Texas-born Parker first made his name during the dawn of the TV era playing Davy Crockett, serialized on the popular Disneyland show. Parker and the show became so popular in the mid-1950s that boys across America wore his trademark coonskin cap. Parker followed that in the 1960s with a successful run on TV's Daniel Boone.

By the late 1970s, Parker was focusing on real-estate investment in Santa Barbara and developed numerous projects over the years  Read more...