LIFE - Remembering Walter Cronkite

http://www.life.com/images/logo.png LIFE - Remembering Walter Cronkite http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/28612/remembering-walter-cronkite Walter Cronkite Reassures America http://www.life.com/image/71526969

Walter Cronkite sits behind a desk and listens to a receiver as he broadcasts a program looking back at the Hindenburg airship disaster for the CBS Television series "You Are There," which reenacted historical events in a news-report format. He always signed off saying, "What sort of day was it? A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times ... and you were there." He started off in the 1930s as a Kansas City sports announcer using the pseudonym Walter Wilcox.]]> 71526969 Tue, 03 Feb 1953 03:00:00 EST

Walter Cronkite, as host of "The Morning Show," has a chat with his daily guest, Charlemane the lion. During World War II, he was one of the top reporters at the front for United Press, making about $100 a week.]]> 3226807 Fri, 01 Jan 1954 03:00:00 EST

Walter Cronkite interviews President Dwight Eisenhower, in Denver, and British Prime Minister Anthony Eden, in London, simultaneously by telephone from the studio of the television series "Town Meeting."]]> 3239297 Sat, 01 Jan 1955 03:00:00 EST

Cronkite sits inside a mock space capsule, similar to a Mercury space capsule, at Cape Canaveral, Fla., during America's race to space in 1962. In order to provide coverage of Project Mercury, CBS News set up a temporary facility known as "CBS News Control Center" at Cape Canaveral.]]> 71526528 Thu, 22 Mar 1962 03:00:00 EST

Walter Cronkite poses with a model of the CBS News Election Headquarters in 1962. He was recruited to CBS by Edward R. Murrow in 1950. He became evening news anchor in 1962, and a few months later, the news program was expanded from 15 minutes to 30.]]> 3206198 Mon, 01 Oct 1962 03:00:00 EDT

Walter Cronkite interviews former U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower at Arlington Cemetery. Cronkite was famous for his catchphrase closing out the evening-news broadcast: "And that's the way it is." Years later, successor Dan Rather would attempt his own sign-off phrase to much less success.]]> 3239300 Thu, 01 Aug 1963 03:00:00 EDT

Walter Cronkite removes his glasses and prepares to announce the death of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 11, 1963. His dramatic and plainspoken address to the American public was the way many Americans first learned of the assassination, and the broadcast is seared in America's collective memory. "From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official: President Kennedy died at 1 p.m., Central Standard Time. Two o'clock Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago," an obviously emotional Cronkite said.]]> 53010184 Fri, 22 Nov 1963 03:00:00 EST

Walter Cronkite stands before a group of television monitors showing news correspondents for the television news program "Eyewitness," including Charles Kuralt at top left. Cronkite was frequently called the most trusted man in America, or even Uncle Walter. He preferred to liken himself to a "comfortable old shoe."]]> 3244617 Fri, 01 Jan 1965 03:00:00 EST

Walter Cronkite looks into the camera from an airfield in Vietnam in 1965. Cronkite returned to Vietnam three years later, and his news special on the scene at the front then turned out to be a pivotal moment in the Vietnam War.]]> 53238363 Mon, 19 Jul 1965 03:00:00 EDT

Walter Cronkite gives a thumbs up with his pipe clenched between his teeth while reporting for CBS in Vietnam in 1968. Covering the aftermath of the Tet Offensive, Cronkite called the war unwinnable. "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America," President Lyndon B. Johnson told his people.]]> 3239409 Mon, 01 Jan 1968 03:00:00 EST

Walter Cronkite stands in front of a large photograph of the lunar landscape at Hayden Planetarium during coverage of NASA's Apollo 8 mission in 1968. His coverage of the moon missions sealed his role as America's preeminent news anchor, and made CBS the top network.]]> 53238081 Fri, 06 Dec 1968 03:00:00 EST

Watching Walter Cronkite on TV in New York in the 1970s. In 1977, responding to a Cronkite question, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat declared that he was willing to meet with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin within a week. Pressed by Cronkite, the leaders met, and Egypt evenutally became the first Arab country to formally recognize Israel.]]> 71530093 Thu, 01 Jan 1970 03:00:00 EST

Walter Cronkite plays pool with wife Betsy and son Chip at home. Cronkite was married to Betsy for 63 years, until her death in 2005, and they had three children together. Later, he began dating opera singer Joanne Simon, Carly Simon's older sister.]]> 50374176 Fri, 01 Jan 1971 03:00:00 EST

Walter Cronkite pilots a sailboat in 1971. “Errol Flynn died on a 70-foot boat with a 17-year-old girl," Betsy Cronkite joked. "Walter has always wanted to go that way, but he's going to have to settle for a 17-footer with a 70-year-old.”]]> 51163393 Fri, 01 Jan 1971 03:00:00 EST

Walter Cronkite shakes hands with actor Ted Knight during an episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," watched by Ed Asner, Mary Tyler Moore, and Gavin MacLeod. Cronkite appeared as himself in the episode which originally aired on Feb. 9, 1974. Cronkite later said he wished he'd had a chance to hang out and talk to the cast.]]> 53237950 Fri, 18 Jan 1974 03:00:00 EDT

Though he didn't break any news on the Watergate scandal personally, he is credited with understanding the implications, keeping up interest in the story, and presenting the facts to mainstream America. ]]> 50604670 Thu, 01 Aug 1974 03:00:00 EDT

Walter Cronkite listens to Cuban President Fidel Castro talking in 1980. Esteemed both at home and abroad, Cronkite had unparalleled access to the powerful and mighty, and got interviews no one else could.]]> 1736393 Thu, 14 Feb 1980 03:00:00 EST

Walter Cronkite speaks during a panel discussion at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in 2006. He signed off for good from the evening news by asking viewers to think of him as simply in the field: "Old anchormen, you see, don't fade away; they just keep coming back for more. And that's the way it is: Friday, March 6, 1981. I'll be away on assignment, and Dan Rather will be sitting in here for the next few years. Good night."]]> 56598703 Sun, 15 Jan 2006 03:00:00 EST

Walter Cronkite leans on the back of his chair and smokes a pipe in his office in 1981. After his retirement from CBS, Cronkite remained an outspoken advocate for the causes he believed in, such as providing free airtime to political candidates, pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq, international cooperation, rethinking the U.S. war on drugs, combating global hunger and poverty, and keeping journalism objective.]]> 82543746 Thu, 01 Jan 1981 03:00:00 EST