WALTER CRONKITE Biography - People in the News and Media

 
 

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WALTER CRONKITE

Name: Walter Cronkite in 1968 in Vietnam                                           
Born: 4 November 1916 St. Joseph, Missouri, USA                                     
                                                                                   
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. (born November 4, 1916) is a retired iconic American   
broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for The CBS Evening News for 19       
years (1962-81). During the heyday of CBS News in the 1970s and 1980s he was       
often cited in viewer opinion polls as "the most trusted man in America,"           
because of his professional experience and avuncular demeanor.                     
                                                                                   
Cronkite was born in Saint Joseph, Missouri to Dr. Walter Leland Cronkite and       
Helena Fritsch. He has remote Dutch ancestry on his father's side, the family       
surname originally being Krankheyt(meaning "disease").                             
                                                                                   
Cronkite lived in Kansas City, Missouri until he was ten, when his family moved     
to Houston, Texas. He attended junior high school at Lanier Junior High School (now 
Lanier Middle School) and high school at San Jacinto High School. He was a         
member of the Boy Scouts. He attended college at The University of Texas at         
Austin, where he worked on The Daily Texan, and became a member of the Nu           
chapter of the Chi Phi Fraternity. He also was a member of the fraternal           
organization of young men known as DeMolay (a member of the Houston Chapter).