Legendary CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite, once voted the “most trusted man in America,” died Friday. He was 92.
The anchor of the CBS Evening News for 19 years, Cronkite had been suffering from a cerebrovascular disease, which affects the blood vessels in the brain.
Affectionately known as “Uncle Walter,” he was best known for his trusted reporting and his sign-off catchphrase, “And that’s the way it is,” which he followed with the date. He reported on most of the world's major events, including Watergate, the Vietnam War and the Apollo space missions.
Most memorably, the usually stoic news anchor cried on the air while reporting the death of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963.
Though not the first network news anchor, the term was coined after his coverage of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in 1952 -- the first time conventions were nationally televised.
"For decades, Walter Cronkite was the most trusted voice in America," President Obama said in a statementThursday night. "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. He was there through wars and riots, marches and milestones, calmly telling us what we needed to know. And through it all, he never lost the integrity he gained growing up in the heartland."
Cronkite ascended to the role of evening news anchor in 1963. He initially trailed the NBC team of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley in the ratings, but CBS began to invest more in its evening news and Cronkite came to dominate the profession.
When he reported that the Vietnam War was unwinnable after witnessing the Tet Offensive, President Lyndon B. Johnson said, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.”
Similarly, former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee credited Cronkite with keeping the “Watergate” story alive. “Somehow many other editors felt when Cronkite -- the great white father of the American people -- said that the Washington Post was right, the story suddenly was worth their attention and coverage,” Bradlee said in a forum published in his old paper.
While Cronkite did not become a titan in the industry until his '50s, he was drawn to journalism from an early age. He was born in Saint Joseph, Missouri, on Nov. 5 1916 and after moving to Texas for middle school and high school, he attended the University of Texas at Austin. While at school, he worked for the Daily Texan; he dropped out of college in 1935 to begin working as a radio announcer.
He went on to work for KCMO in Kansas City,where he met his future wife, Mary Elizabeth Maxwell, known by her nickname “Betsy.” The two married in 1940 and remained together until Maxwell’s death on March 16, 2005, just two weeks short of their 65th anniversary.
