Walter Cronkite – That’s The Way It Is!
The passing of Walter Cronkite brings back some wonderful memories. Walter grew up as an field reporter during World War II. His work ethic and his determination to get to the truth became his trademark as the CBS News Anchor for over 20 years. The 1960s were a difficult decade with wars, racial unrest, burning cities and constant change. But, Cronkite had a reassurance that was so needed by Americans.
In 1965 my Dad worked with a friend at CBS TV to connect with Walter Cronkite. My Dad was passionate about everything, especially his local community – Lewiston, Maine. He convinced Mr. Cronkite to travel to Maine with his family to speak at a fundraising event for our United Way. The Kennedy assassination in 1963 brought both TV news and Cronkite to a new prominence. Before this event, the nightly news was 15 minutes. But, it was quickly expanded to a half hour because cameras could and did go anywhere in the world to capture/ report news of that day. So, somehow my Dad convinced Cronkite to travel to Maine
We met the Cronkite Family at our small local airport. We brought them to our summer home and had an enjoyable couple days. Here I was a 14 years old driving Mr. Cronkite around the lake not realizing that he probably owned a fleet of sailboats 10 times the size of our boat. But, he was gracious and seemed to love taking pictures of his children playing with the Geigers.,Maybe such opportunities were rare. After this visit he fell in love with Maine said enjoyed sailing off the Maine coast - with Camden being his favorite place of all.
My take-always…….
The only cost for coming up was “all the lobsters he could he”. And, he could put them down. I recall 5 in one sitting. Ha!
His wife, Betsy, and children were just delightful people. You think celebrity families are somehow different. These folks were not.
Before speaking to the Lewiston audience, he shared how very nervous he got before a live audience. His comfort was in front of a camera being watched by 30 million.
A life that covered 92 years and brought him into our homes during the best and worst of times made Cronkite everyone’s “Uncle Walter”. And that’s the way it is or so he said as every newscast.ended.
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