Legendary Life of Walter Cronkite (1916-2009)

Legendary news anchor Walter Cronkite has died today – July 17, 2009. He was 92 years old. Cronkite had been battling cerebrovascular disease.

Walter Cronkite was called “the most trusted man in America” as well as “Uncle Walter.” During his career, Cronkite dealt with a wide variety of news changing events such as, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the amazing Apollo moon landing and the unpopular Vietnam War.

Walter Cronkite was born in 1916 in the Missouri city of St. Joseph. From there, Cronkite become one of the most famous journalists of all time. His stellar news career covered decades in which he covered some of the most significant events of the “American Century”. He was also noted for covering three separate wars in Europe and Asia, the love, drugs and war decade of the 1960′s, and the Watergate scandal that rocked President Nixon.

According to the Museum of Broadcast Communications, Walter Cronkite began his career as a newswriter and editor for Scripps-Howard and United Press. We worked in a variety of cities including: Houston, Texas; Kansas City, Missouri; Dallas, Austin, and El Paso, Texas; and New York City.

Walter Cronkite proceeded to Europe, where he became the UP’s (United Press) war correspondent from the years 1942 to 1945. Cronkite also served as the chief correspondent during the historical Nuremberg war crimes trials.

Walter Cronkite began his career at the The CBS Evening News during 1962. He became the main point of source for breaking news stories for many years to come.

For more than two decades, Walter Cronkite was a fixture in American’s homes with his deep voice and fatherly manner. Who can forget his initial emotional, then comforting demeanor during the events following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Walter Cronkite received much recognition as a serious journalist. Cronkite received several Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards in 1962 and 1981, the William A. White Award for journalistic merit in 1969, the George Polk Journalism Award in 1971, and Alfred I. DuPont Awards in 1978 and 1981. Walter Cronkite also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981.

We will miss you Walter Cronkite …. “And that’s the way it is”