A Fond Farewell to Walter Cronkite

In another life I was an aspiring journalist, but even before I set myself on that path I had Walter Cronkite in my life. My first real memory of him goes back to the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Even as a very young child his loss of composure as he announced that the president was dead made an impression on me. Newsmen didn’t display their emotions! But that was one time when even Walter had a hard time holding it together.

As a young teenager I prayed each evening that my older brother wasn’t among the American casualties in Vietnam that he so dutifully reported on each night. (Thankfully, he never was.) I remember sitting around the TV with my family when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon. Again, it was Walter who guided us through that momentous event.

Throughout my entire childhood, adolescence and coming of age he was always there, a comforting grandfather breaking sometimes very awful news to us during that turbulent time in U.S. history but also helping us celebrate our victories and sharing our joys.

So, even though he hasn’t been a regular fixture in our lives for quite some time now, I’ll still miss him. And, in this age of tabloid journalism, I think I’ll miss even more what he represented: the “old school” journalist. Solid. Dependable. Believable. Truly a class act.

And that’s the way it is.

Bye for now!

~ Deborah