Walter Cronkite Dies

Television Pioneer, CBS Legend, Passes Away in New York at 92

(CBS)  The "most trusted man in America" is gone.

Walter Cronkite, who personified television journalism for more than a generation as anchor and managing editor of the "CBS Evening News," has died. CBS vice president Linda Mason says Cronkite died at 7:42 p.m. Friday with his family by his side at his home in New York after a long illness. He was 92.

Known for his steady and straightforward delivery, his trim moustache, and his iconic sign-off line -"That’s the way it is" - Cronkite dominated the television news industry during one of the most volatile periods of American history. He broke the news of the Kennedy assassination, reported extensively on Vietnam and Civil Rights and Watergate, and seemed to be the very embodiment of TV journalism.

Special Section: Walter Cronkite: 1916-2009

"Cronkite came to be the sort of personification of his era," veteran PBS Correspondent Robert McNeil once said. "He became kind of the media figure of his time. Very few people in history, except maybe political and military leaders, are the embodiment of their time, and Cronkite seemed to be."

At one time, his audience was so large, and his image so credible, that a 1972 poll determined he was "the most trusted man in America" - surpassing even the president, vice president, members of Congress and all other journalists. In a time of turmoil and mistrust, after Vietnam and Watergate, the title was a rare feat - and the label stuck.

"For decades, Walter Cronkite was the most trusted voice in America," said President Barack Obama in a statement. "His rich baritone reached millions of living rooms every night, and in an industry of icons, Walter set the standard by which all others have been judged."

Mr. Obama said that Cronkite calmly shared the world's news while never losing his integrity.

"But Walter was always more than just an anchor," Mr. Obama said. "He was someone we could trust to guide us through the most important issues of the day; a voice of certainty in an uncertain world. He was family. He invited us to believe in him, and he never let us down. This country has lost an icon and a dear friend, and he will be truly missed."

Cronkite's achievements were remarkable for a man whose beginnings were anything but remarkable.

Walter Leland Cronkite was born in St. Joseph, Missouri on November 4, 1916, the only child of a dentist father and homemaker mother. When he was still young, his family moved to Texas. One day, he read an article in "Boys Life" magazine about the adventures of reporters working around the world - and young Cronkite was hooked. He began working on his high school newspaper and yearbook and, in 1933, he entered the University of Texas at Austin to study political science, economic and journalism. He never graduated. He took a part time job at the Houston Post, left college to do what he loved: report.

After working as a general assignment reporter for the Post and a sportscaster in Oklahoma City, Cronkite got a job in 1939 working for United Press. He went to Europe to cover World War II as part of the "Writing 69th," a group of reporters who found themselves covering some of the most important developments in the war, including the D-Day invasion, bombing missions over Germany, and later, the Nuremburg war trials. In 1940, he married Mary Elizabeth Maxwell - known as "Betsy" - and for the next six decades she was the dutiful reporter’s wife, enduring sometimes long separations while he covered the world, and raising three children. Cronkite once wrote about her: ''I attribute the longevity of our marriage to Betsy's extraordinary keen sense of humor, which saw us over many bumps (mostly of my making), and her tolerance, even support, for the uncertain schedule and wanderings of a newsman."

While working for the UP, Cronkite was offered a job at CBS by Edward R. Murrow - and he turned it down. He finally accepted a second offer in 1950, and stepped into the new medium of television. In the early '50s, it was a medium many of the "serious" journalists at CBS and elsewhere viewed with skepticism, if not disdain. Radio and print, they contended, were for real reporters; television was for actors or comedians.

At first, it seemed an unlikely fit. Walter Cronkite, with his serious demeanor and unpretentious style - honed by his years of unvarnished reporting at UP - was named host of "You Are There" in which key moments of history were recreated by actors. Cronkite was depicted on camera interviewing "Joan of Arc" or "Sigmund Freud." But somehow, he managed to make it believable.

The young director of the series, Sidney Lumet said he picked Cronkite for the job because "the premise of the series was so silly, so outrageous, that we needed somebody with the most American, homespun, warm ease about him."

During his early years at CBS, Cronkite was also named host of "The Morning Show" on CBS, where he was paired with a partner: a puppet named Charlemagne. But he distinguished himself with his coverage of the 1952 and 1956 political conventions and as narrator of the documentary series "Twentieth Century." In 1961, CBS named him the anchor of the "CBS Evening News" - a 15 minute news summary anchored for several years by Douglas Edwards.

At the time, the broadcast lived in the long shadow cast by NBC’s Huntley-Brinkley Report, the most popular television newscast in the country. Expectations for the Cronkite newscast were not high. But in 1963, the broadcast was expanded to 30 minutes - and Cronkite won a title for which he had long campaigned, Managing Editor. The added time gave the broadcast more depth and variety, and the title gave Cronkite more influence over the content and coverage.

And it came at a significant time. In September of that year, Cronkite launched the expanded program with an extended interview with President John F. Kennedy. Two months later, it was Cronkite who broke into the soap opera "As The World Turns" to announce that the president had been shot - and later to declare that he had been killed.

It was a defining moment for Cronkite, and for the country. His presence - in shirtsleeves, slowly removing his glasses to check the time and blink back tears - captured both the sense of shock, and the struggle for composure, that would consume America and the world over the next four days.

Cronkite’s audience began to grow - but not quickly enough for network executives who, in 1964, decided to try an anchor team at the conventions - Robert Trout and Roger Mudd - to rival Chet Huntley and David Brinkley at NBC. Cronkite was not happy about the change, and viewer reaction was swift. Over 11,000 letters poured in protesting the switch. Network executives never tried that again. In 1966, The CBS Evening News began to overtake the Huntley-Brinkley report in the ratings, and in 1967 it took the lead. It remained there until Cronkite’s retirement in 1981.

They were years filled with astonishing change - and indelible history. In 1968, Cronkite returned from visiting Vietnam and declared on television:"It seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is a stalemate." President Lyndon Johnson, on hearing that, reportedly said, "If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost America." Not long after, Johnson declared his intention not to run for re-election. That same year saw the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy - two more shocking moments that bound the country together through the medium of television. Once again, as he had five years earlier, Cronkite was the steadying force during a time of national sorrow.

"It's a kind of chemistry," former Johnson aide and CBS News commentator Bill Moyers once said. "The camera either sees you as part of the environment or it rejects you as an alien body, and Walter had 'it,' whatever 'it' was."

One of Cronkite’s enthusiasms was the space race. And in 1969, when America sent a man to the moon, he couldn’t contain himself. "Go baby, go!," he said, as Apollo XI took off. He ended up performing what critics described as"Walter to Walter" coverage of the mission - staying on the air for 27 of the 30 hours that Apollo XI took to complete its mission.

Cronkite even managed to have a surprising influence on world affairs. In 1977, he interviewed Egyptian President Anwar El-Sadat, who told Cronkite that, if invited, he’d go to Jerusalem to meet with Prime Minister Menachem Begin. The move was unprecedented. The next day, Begin invited Sadat to Jerusalem for talks that eventually led to the Camp David accords and the Israeli-Egyptian treaty.

In 1981, Cronkite announced he would retire at the age of 65, to make way for a new anchor in the chair, Dan Rather. A commentator in the New Republic said it was like "George Washington leaving the dollar bill." There were so many requests for interviews, eventually all of them were turned down.

In retirement, Cronkite kept busy with other projects - a short-lived magazine program on CBS called "Walter Cronkite's Universe," a few documentaries, plus a seat on the CBS board of directors. He spent a considerable amount of time at his summer home in Martha’s Vineyard, sailing the boat he named for his wife, "The Betsy." And he wrote his autobiography, "A Reporter’s Life," published in 1996.

In 2005, Cronkite’s wife Betsy died after a battle with cancer. His two daughters and son survive him.

While Cronkite kept a lower profile in his later years, he did make a significant contribution to the "CBS Evening News with Katie Couric": it is his voice that has been used during the opening of the broadcast since its debut in 2006, bridging generations and signifying the newscast’s strong link to its storied past.

As Cronkite said on March 6, 1981, concluding his final broadcast as anchorman: "Old anchormen, you see, don't fade away, they just keep coming back for more. And that's the way it is."

[onlystarspt2]

More pricing games coming up on the first and second halves of the price is right. It's the next chpater. Season 39 for host Drew Carey. It was Todd Newton on DVD that taught us how to play the price is right dvd at home. Now this fall, can you tell me more on Drew's new model search so we know when it will be on?

[momspsalms]

In 1972 I wrote a short story called "See You Tonight, Walter" based on my experience as a newlywed Navy bride living alone in CA while my husband was on a destroyer in the South Pacific. Working at a small ad agency, I was easy prey for all the guys eager to tell me just what my husband was up to overseas, so why not have some fun with them....My answer was always that I already had plans with Walter. Go out for drinks? No, having dinner with Walter. Meet after work? Sorry, seeing Walter. He was my stability in a world run amok. That knowing half-smile and reassuring, "And that's the way it is." I'll never forget all my "dates" with Walter!

[DennisinSF]

What a class act -
The eloquence, the voice, the vocabulary -

We're all a little poorer and dumber for his loss.

[randalltaylor]

Walter walked me through the assasanation of JFK, and MLK, and the landing on the moon. He talked in plain english where all could understand and was not misleading at all. I also remember the show "You Were There" I learned so much from Walter Cronkite. Walter it is now time for you to rest and go to Heaven and do what you have to there.....AND THAT IS THE WAY IT IS.....

Randall Taylor Tucson, AZ

[DJ Wels]

I agree...Walter will be greatly missed! I made a Walter Cronkite tribute song. It's pretty cool, I made the entire thing only by scratching with turntables and records. You can download it for free at

http://www.zshare.net/audio/63053595fd0a01c5/

I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it!
~DJ Wels

[DJ Wels]

I agree...Walter will be greatly missed! I made a Walter Cronkite tribute song. It's pretty cool, I made the entire thing only by scratching with turntables and records. You can download it for free at

http://www.zshare.net/audio/63053595fd0a01c5/

I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it!
~DJ Wels

[larryfire26]

As a Past CBS employee and Radio Operator, I was deelpy saddned to learn of Walters Passing.

The world has lost a great Man and Journalist. We also lost a man who witnessed and was part of so much history! So sad that his shoes will be very hard to fill if ever! RIP Walter

[deeloree]

I grew up listening to Walter Cronkite,so when I wrote a poem it included his name naturally. It`s found in my book a collection of poetry by DeEtta Turner. the verse he is in goes like this- Ed Sullivan, Red Skelton, and the great Danny Kaye, Imogene Coca, and Gidget`s travels each day,Walter Cronkite with the news, gained all of our trust, and watching Lassie save the day, was always a must! I will miss him a lot. Deetta Turner.

[mbgolden]

Why doesn't Walter Cronkite get as much media coverage at the time of his death as that horrible child molesting freak, Michael Jackson? The media should be ashamed!

[sawfingers]

I'm 57 and have always thought of WC as an objective journalist. It's remarkable that even here on the CBS homepage, they do not report that WC was forced out to make way for Dan Rather because he refused to champion ideaology instead of just reporting facts. I know WC was very liberal, but it didn't show and I always respected that. Newscasters such as COuric and Blitzer want the face time and the means to promote the liberal agenda.

[Nannews1]

The Nation as a whole will morn the passing of this gentle giant that loved the news, confirmed his facts, and just told it just the way it was.

For myself Walter Cronkite was the news. I was born only four years prior to his being put in the CBS anchor chair. My parents watched no one else. When I was young I thought Walter Cronkite was the only one who gave us the news. When I grew older I just learned that he did it better!

In all our lives there is much upheavel yet Walter Cronkite was our compass when the seas would get rough. He guided us through the bad times as well as the good. He was human he choked up when President Kennedy was shot and he smiled and giggled with glee like a child on Christmas morning when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.

Walter Cronkite just died a few days ago but personally I have missed him since March 6, 1981. When he signed off that night it was the end of an era. He was missed then and he will be forever missed by those of us who grew up with him as our "Uncle Walter" the most trusted man in America!

And that's the way it is!

[Nannews1]

The nation as a whole will morn the passing of this gentle giant that loved the news, confirmed his facts, and told it just the way it "is".

For myself Walter Cronkite was the news. I was born only four years prior

[mgress44]

I wonder if all of the "journalists" reporting on Walter Cronkite and that he was "the most trusted man in journalism" actually realize why he was trusted. It was because he "reported" the news. He did not sensationalize. He did not give his opinion. He did not make it up as he went along. He did not report opinion from witnesses, etc. as fact. He reported the news as it occurred. He did not try and convict the suspects. He did not go any further than to report allegations as allegations. NOT as fact. If he had a bias, he did not share it. That IS NOT the job of the journalist. The job of the journalist is to report what is happening or what has happened. We, as the viewer, do not want to hear your opinion. We do not want to hear what you think about it. We do not want you do add your flourishes to the news. Just report it. That is all. That is what Cronkite did. We all knew we could trust what he was reporting because he reported the FACTS. Remember the FACTS? Or have you as "journalists" become so preoccupied with your own celebrity and your own opinions, that you have forgotten it is about the news?

Marietta - Alexandria, VA

[terryetter]

Mr. Cronkite was truly a gem. He was the quintessential journalist and a great human being. Although I never met him -- something I'll always regret -- he helped inspire me to enter broadcasting, which I enjoyed being a part of for more than 20 years. I feel as though I've lost a dear friend. The world will miss him.

[proudmilvet]

Smitty 522,you just posted a comment stating that all Liberals are sick,hateful & angry. Aren't you doing the same thing with your verbal insults & name calling? Amazing!! Just like your "Dear Leader" Limbaugh!

[proudmilvet]

Perceptions 5, are you going to tell us now that Fox(Faux)News doesn't always present the RNC propaganda or ONLY the opinions of your "Dear Leader" Limbaugh? Fair & Balanced my A##!!

[mtwdo]

Thank You, uncle Walter. You were truly a journalist. The next generation will never know honest, objective, unfiltered, unspun news. I wish for the old days when the news was reported and Americans were left to form their own opinions!

[robo1415]

Enough already!Walter Cronkite had his negatives as well as his positives...the man spouted some silly anti-Catholic and anti-freedom views as well some things good....Do you honestly think a conservative who had said the same things about say,someone Jewish,Gay or black would still have as many accolades?

[pozjetsfan]

America has lost it's public voice of the last three generations. It is a loss of staggering proportions. Journalism in america has died......and thats the way it is........have a great flight Mr. Cronkite.

[geeeberry]

Walter, Great man, THE LAST HONEST PERSON THAT C BS HIRED