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US journalists, family bid Cronkite farewell
Veteran US journalists and family members bid farewell to Walter Cronkite at a memorial service for the renowned CBS television anchor in New York.
Veteran US journalists and family members bid farewell to Walter Cronkite at a memorial service for the renowned CBS television anchor in New York.
CBS said the service took place at Saint Bartholomew’s Church in Manhattan ahead of Cronkite’s burial in the southern state of Missouri.
Among those attending were news anchors and journalists Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, Barbara Walters, Brian Williams and Andy Rooney. Cronkite died on July 17, aged 92.
Presenter of the CBS Evening News program from 1962-1981, he became known as “the most trusted man in America” for his calm and honest delivery during a tumultuous time in US history.
Events during that period included civil rights unrest, the assassination of president John F Kennedy, the Vietnam war, the Moon landing, the Cold War, and the Watergate scandal that toppled president Richard Nixon.
It was also a period when broadcast networks ruled supreme in the United States, making Cronkite a truly national figure.
Sanford Socolow, a longtime CBS News executive, was quoted by CBS saying at the memorial service “He had this reputation for being cool and calm and collected no matter what the circumstances, but that doesn’t do him justice.
