Journalist since 1937; with CBS television since 1950.
Was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981. This is the highest honor a U.S. civilian can receive. Was the lead anchor on the CBS Evening News from 16 April 1962 until 6 March 1981.
Reported on the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals in 1945.
Is the 1966 recipient of the prestigious Connor Award given by the brothers of the Phi Alpha Tau fraternity based out of Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. He is also an honorary brother of the fraternity.
Satirized by Ray Goulding as "Walter Chronic" in Cold Turkey (1971).
December 2003 - Underwent surgery to repair a previously injured achilles tendon.
Makes a unique claim about his television career. When he attended 1933 World's Fair, he was present at an exhibit displaying an early example of television. At the exhibit, the attendees were allowed to sit in front of the camera and watch themselves on the screen. When Cronkite sat in front of the camera he did an improptu impression of a man he had seen playing two flutes at once. Therefore, he jokingly claims that he was definitely on television decades before his contemporaries.
Attended both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions in 1928. The former was on a boy scout field trip and the latter was during a visit to his grandparents in Kansas City.
CBS asked Cronkite to come up with a signature closing line for the evening news. When he came up with "And that's the way it is", CBS was concerned that it would suggest a certain infallability. But Cronkite explained that it would fit any type of story whether it was funny or sad or ironic.
His first job as a journalist was as a cub reporter for the Kansas City Times.
His stage name during his days in radio was Walter Wilcox.
The very day he was born, his father immediately left the hospital and went out and voted for President Woodrow Wilson.
His mother Helen died in 1993 at the age of 101.
Father-in-law of Deborah Rush.
In 1964 he was fired from his anchorman duties at the Democratic National Convention. CBS had gotten a new president who had never worked on a presidential campaign and had definate ideas about how CBS would be covering it. It turned out to be a mess and as a result Cronkite got some of the blame so the network executives removed him from the coverage but kept him as the anchorman of the evening news. Jokingly Cronkite became buddies with the president of NBC and the people at CBS were horrified that he was being offered a job in the rival network. So when the Republican Convention rolled around Cronkite got to cover it without using the new president's tactics.
At the birth of television, he and his team at CBS practically invented the institution of the evening news program. In 1951, one of the stage managers at CBS told him to sit at the desk and do the news. Cronkite asked what he meant and the managers simply said "I don't know just do it". His idea was to first just talk to the camera like another person and organize the news stories in the same vein as the newspaper beginning with the top story and working his way down to human interest stories.
Betsy Cronkite, his wife, was working as a newspaper journalist when they met.
He is an only child.
He met his wife Betsy when he was working at a radio station in Kansas City. The two were paired up to do a cosmetics commercial and married a year later.
His family heritage is Dutch-Scottish.
Father of Kathy Cronkite.
In 1997 he released his autobiography, "A Reporter's Life", which coincided with a two-hour TV special, "Cronkite Remembers", in which he reminisced about his years as a reporter. A week later an eight-hour version aired on The Discovery Channel.
On March 15, 2005 he lost his wife of 64 years, Betsy, three weeks before their 65th anniversary.
Is a licensed amateur (ham) radio operator with the call sign KB2GSD.
Walter Cronkite Detailed Biography
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. (born November 4, 1916) is an American journalist, best known for his work as a television news anchorman. During his tenure at CBS Evening News he was often cited in viewer opinion polls as "the most trusted man in America," due to his experienced background and professional demeanor.
Cronkite was born in Saint Joseph, Missouri, and grew up in Houston, Texas. He attended middle school at Lanier Middle School and high school at San Jacinto High School. Thereafter he attended The University of Texas at Austin.
