Bob Ross, the bushy-haired, soft-spoken painting instructor who found fame on public television's The Joy of Painting, died this week of cancer. Funeral services were held Friday.

An Orlando native who captivated millions of viewers worldwide with his hushed voice and landscapes with "happy little trees," Ross died Tuesday at his Orlando home. He was 52.

He had battled lymphoma for several years, said Joan Kowalski, a spokeswoman for Bob Ross Inc., the Virginia-based company that sells his line of paint products, videotapes and how-to books.

For the past year, viewers of his show (seen locally on WMFE-Channel 24 at 11 a.m. Saturday, and on WCEU-Channel 15 at 3:30 p.m. Friday) watched reruns as Ross' health declined.

Ross attended Orlando High School before enlisting in the Air Force. He left Central Florida in 1963, when the Air Force stationed him in Alaska.

While there, he began taking painting lessons. After retiring from the service in 1981, he taught art for a national art-supply company. Shortly thereafter, he took a tape of his classes to a public TV station in Falls Church, Va., which offered him a pilot.

The Joy of Painting began airing in 1983 and, at its height, was shown on 300 of the nation's 337 public television stations, in addition to stations in Japan, Korea, Mexico, Turkey, England and the Philippines.

Ross painted landscapes at lightning speed - whipping out paintings in under 30 minutes. His was art for the masses. Viewers mailed him postcards, calendars, even snapshots, of scenes they thought he should paint. And he did.

Ross acknowledged that his paintings wouldn't be found in a museum - indeed, he donated most of them to PBS stations to auction during fund-raisers. Nonetheless, his show attracted millions of loyal viewers who tuned in to watch him dot landscapes with "happy little trees" - one of his favorite expressions.

Many viewers weren't interested in learning to paint; they watched the show for entertainment or for his soothing, hypnotic style.

"We've gotten letters from people who say they sleep better when the show is on," said Ross, whose mailbag regularly featured 200 letters a day from viewers.

For the quiet Ross, the exposure was fun. Easily recognized because of his Brillo-pad hair, he was sometimes mobbed by fans, particularly in Japan and New York.

Two years ago, Ross taped a promo for MTV in which he painted the MTV logo and declared the music-video network the "home of happy little trees."

Even after his death, the show will go on. "We are going to continue with The Best of the Joy of Painting for the next year," said Pat Walker of WIPB, the Muncie, Ind., station where Ross taped the series.

And that, says Kowalski, is what Ross would want.

"Interest in the show never diminished, even when Bob was too sick to do any personal appearances," she said. "That's sort of the way he hoped it would be."

More than 2.5 million copies of his instruction books are in print. And his company, Bob Ross Inc., has more than 1,000 certified instructors to perpetuate his "wet-on-wet" technique.

Ross is survived by his wife, Lynda; a son; a brother; and a half-brother.