Newsman Jennings Dead At 67

(CBS/AP)  Peter Jennings, the suave, Canadian-born broadcaster who delivered the news to Americans each night in five separate decades, died Sunday. He was 67.

Jennings, who announced in April that he had lung cancer, passed away at his New York home, ABC News President David Westin said.

"Peter has been our colleague, our friend, and our leader in so many ways. None of us will be the same without him," Westin said.

President Bush remembered Jennings as a distinguished journalist who became a familiar face in millions of households.

"A lot of Americans relied upon Peter Jennings for their news. He became a part of the life of a lot of our fellow citizens, and he will be missed," Mr. Bush said before boarding Air Force One for a trip to New Mexico to sign a major energy bill.

With

CBS News' Dan Rather (video)

and NBC News' Tom Brokaw, Jennings was part of a triumvirate of evening news broadcast anchors who dominated U.S. network news for more than two decades, through the birth of cable news and the Internet. His smooth delivery and years of international reporting experience made him particularly popular among urban dwellers.

"He was a great pro, a loving husband and father, a loyal friend. Peter Jennings was one of the most talented, caring and successful journalists, not just TV journalists, of all time," said Rather.

"He was a fierce competitor, but a principled one. With Peter on the story, you always knew you weren't going to sleep very much because you had to have your eye on him all the time. But you also knew how ethical he was and what a passion he had for news."

Brokaw said Jennings "was born to be an anchor. … Peter, of the three of us, was our prince. He seemed so timeless. He had such elan and style."

Like Rather and Brokaw, Jennings wasn't entirely comfortable stuck in a studio. He traveled around the world to cover stories and, when he didn't journey to Asia to cover the aftermath of the tsunami less than four months before his cancer diagnosis, it was noticed.

Jennings was the face of ABC News whenever a big story broke. He logged more than 60 hours on the air during the week of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, offering a soothing sense of continuity during a troubled time.

"There are a lot of people who think our job is to reassure the public every night that their home, their community and their nation is safe," Jennings once told author Jeff Alan. "I don't subscribe to that at all. I subscribe to leaving people with essentially - sorry it's a cliche - a rough draft of history. Some days it's reassuring, some days it's absolutely destructive."

"My favorite picture of Peter," said former colleague Justin Friedland, "is no matter where you see him, no matter what he's doing, Peter's always got a reporter's notebook tucked into the back of his belt, just so in case he runs into somebody interesting, he's ready."

"First and foremost," said Friedland, a former ABC News producer, "Peter Jennings wanted to be a reporter. He wanted to tell people stories. He wanted to understand what was going on in the world and how it related to them. And I think that if people remember Peter that way, he'd be happy."

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page »