Walter Cronkite, the legendary newsman dubbed “The Most Trusted Man in America” died Friday night after a long illness, with his family at his side. He was 92.
Walter Cronkite spent 19 years as the anchor and managing editor of the “CBS Evening News” and was the biggest name in television journalism for a generation. Cronkite began his iconic sign-off line, “And that’s the way it is,” in 1963 when “Evening News” became the first half-hour weekend newscast in the nation.
On Sept. 2, 1963, President Kennedy speaks with Walter Cronkite during a taped television interview at the President’s summer home at Hyannis Port, Mass. Only weeks later, Cronkite would famously report on Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas.
CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite poses with his Emmy at the 31st Emmy Awards on Sept. 9, 1979, in Los Angeles, Calif. He won numerous awards throughout his career.
Walter Cronkite left the air having spent nearly two decades crafting and influencing network news nightly. His style and approach to the news continue to inspire and shape the media today. Here, Cronkite speaks on the phone in his office on March 6, 1981, prior to his final newscast as CBS anchorman in New York, with a framed Mickey Mouse cartoon and his Emmy award behind him.
Walter Cronkite, second from right, has his hand bitten by actress Priscilla Lopez who plays Harpo Marx in the Broadway comedy “A Day in Hollywood, A Night in the Ukraine” on May 28, 1980, in New York. Also clowning with Cronkite are Frank “Chico” Lazarus, bottom left, and David “Groucho” Garrison, who said meeting Cronkite was like meeting Santa Claus. Cronkite’s wife Betsy is at right.
From left, Barbara Walters, Henry Kissinger, Walter Cronkite and John Chancellor mingle on Nov. 28, 1978.
President Clinton waves as he sails with wife Hillary and daughter Chelsea aboard a sailboat skippered by former CBS Anchor Walter Cronkite on Aug. 25, 1998, near Edgartown, Mass.
