Claude L. McCue, Former AFTRA Local Head, Dies
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Claude L. McCue, head of the local chapter of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists from 1943 to 1976 and the labor executive credited with negotiating AFTRA’s first television contract, is dead of heart failure.
McCue was 79 when he died April 25 in a Santa Monica Hospital.
McCue, who began in the entertainment industry as a saxophonist, graduated from Stanford University Law School and came to Los Angeles from San Francisco, where he headed the AFTRA office there.
In Los Angeles, he helped establish the union’s pension fund and during his tenure the local grew to 30,000 members, half of AFTRA’s national membership.
McCue is survived by his wife, Barbara, a son, daughter, brother and four grandchildren.
Donations are being asked for a Claude L. McCue scholarship fund and may be sent to the AFTRA Memorial Foundation in New York City.
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