The Personal Side Of Ed Bradley

Friends Share Personal Memories Of Ed Bradley

(CBS)  His repertoire was limited, pretty much to one song: a 1951 R&B classic by Billy Ward and The Dominoes called "60 Minute Man." The piece was written long before the show came on the air, and it has nothing to do with journalism, but that was all part of the joke.

"I can't sing. I can't dance. I can't play anything. And so it's always sort of a joke when Teddy gets up there to play because my ability is very limited. Music is my bliss," Bradley joked about his talents.

But for one week a year, during Jazz Fest, it was an emotional release that allowed Ed to be part of a scene and a city he loved, and the feeling was mutual. Over the years, Quint Davis, who runs Jazz Fest, became one of Ed’s best friends.

"He could, you know, nail someone to the wall in an interview, and he can just let it all loose and get out there and boogie at Jimmy’s Club in New Orleans," Davis recalls.

Jazz Fest was like Spring Break for Ed.

"Look, I'll tell you something interesting about Ed and music," Davis says. "In all the years that we were together, we never went to a show with an African-American musician – and we went to hundreds if not thousands – that they didn't stop the show, introduce him, ask the audience to give him applause, and sing him a song. In a club, at Jazz Fest, everywhere."

He enjoyed being Ed Bradley, not so much for the celebrity it brought him, but for the people he got to meet, the places he got to, and all the things it allowed him to do. It all fit together. When Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans, Ed went to cover the story and to help out help his friends.

"He met a praline maker in New Orleans who he thought made the best pralines in the world. And he loved her. And he would get tins from her," Davis remembers. "And when she got misplaced by the storm, you know, he found her, and he helped support her."

"How many people did he help?" Kroft asks Buffett.

"A long list of people," he replies.

By chance, 60 Minutes found one of the people helped last Friday at "Tipitinas," one of Ed’s favorite haunts. Blues singer Marva Wright had lost everything in the storm. Ed heard that she was going to have to pack up and move to Maryland. So Quint Davis brought her a present.

"It was a check," Wright recalls. "I’m not gonna tell you how much the check was, but he said, 'This is from Ed.' And God knows, God knows it helped. It really did. I was so happy. I just love Mr. Ed Bradley."

Wynton Marsalis is familiar with Ed’s generosity. He is the artistic director of "Jazz at Lincoln Center," a New York cultural institution Ed helped found and fund. And just to keep his hand in radio, Ed hosted a syndicated show for "Jazz at Lincoln Center" that was broadcast on public radio

"Are there any stories you can tell?" Kroft asks Marsalis.

"Na. I mean, I can tell a lot of stories about Ed. But the funniest stories to me are the ones where he would get mad," Marsalis explains, laughing. "We did a concert one time that he didn't like. He calls me up later. He says, 'Hey, man, this is Ed.' I said, 'Yes, Sir.' He said, 'Are y'all all right up there?' I said, 'What you mean?' He said, 'I went to that concert. What are y'all doing?' I said, 'Man, we trying to play the music.' He said, 'Well, I'm not paying my money for y'all to try to play the music.'"

"'Next time you go out there, play the music,'" Marsalis recalls Bradley saying.

If the various aspects of Ed’s personality came together in one place, it was his uncompromising sense of style and especially the earring he got back in the 1980's but didn’t wear on the air for a long time. It’s the one thing everyone always asks 60 Minutes about. So Kroft went to the expert.

"He came to me and said, 'Should I wear it on television?'" Buffett recalls. "And I said, 'Well, you know, yeah, I mean, if you're a musician you'd wear him. But you're Ed Bradley on 60 Minutes. Let's start with your office. There's going to be some comment here.' And he said, 'That doesn’t bother me.'"

"What did it represent to him? Why did he do it?" Kroft asks.

"That he should be able to do and be what he wanted to be and it wouldn't have an effect on his professionalism," Buffett replies. "It was the style of the time. So, why couldn't a top rate journalist for 60 Minutes dress and act like he wanted to? Who was going to put that rule in place that you couldn't wear an earring and a suit at the same time? That's just Ed and that non-compromising thing that, you know, 'Why shouldn't I be able to do this?'"