Did the son of Red Skelton die?

One of his children did die in childhood. I am not sure if it was a boy or a girl. The comedian went into a morbidly romantic world tour with the child- and tried to elicit the cooperation of the Pope. ( how a religious leader could cure a kid with a terminal ailment is not very good logic) Maybe the child had a ( crush) on the Pope akin to ball players, movie actresses ( with older Boys!) and so on. This grim touch of tragedy certainly affected Red"s comedy output- and around l976 I believe his wife commited suicide by gun shot injury.