Charles Kuralt | |
|---|---|
 Kuralt in 1976 | |
| Born | Charles Bishop Kuralt (1934-09-10)September 10, 1934 |
| Died | July 4, 1997(1997-07-04) (aged 62) New York City, U.S. |
| Resting place | Old Chapel Hill Cemetery |
| Alma mater | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| Occupations | journalist,correspondent,news anchor |
| Years active | 1955–1997 |
| Employer | CBS News (1956–1994) |
| Known for | "On the Road" |
| Spouses | |
| Partner | Patricia Shannon (1968–1997) |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | Emmy Award Audie Award |
Charles Bishop Kuralt (September 10, 1934[1] – July 4, 1997) was an American television, newspaper and radio journalist and author.[2][3] He is most widely known for his long career withCBS, first for his "On the Road" segments onThe CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and later as the first anchor ofCBS News Sunday Morning, a position he held for fifteen years.[4] In 1996, Kuralt was inducted intoTelevision Hall of Fame of theNational Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.[5]
Kuralt'sOn the Road segments were recognized twice with personalPeabody Awards.[6][7] The first, awarded in 1968, cited those segments as heartwarming and "nostalgic vignettes."[6] In 1975, his award was for his work as aU.S. "bicentennial historian"; his work "capture[d] the individuality of the people, the dynamic growth inherent in the area, and...the rich heritage of this great nation."[7] Kuralt also won anEmmy Award forOn the Road in 1978.[5] He shared in a third Peabody awarded toCBS News Sunday Morning in 1979.[8]
Kuralt was born inWilmington, North Carolina.[2] His father,Wallace H. Kuralt Sr. was a social worker and his mother, Ina Bishop, was a teacher.[3] In 1945, the family moved toCharlotte, North Carolina where his father became Director of Public Welfare inMecklenburg County.[9][10] Their house off Sharon Road, then 10 miles south of the city, was the only structure in the area.[11][12][13]
As a boy, he won a children's sports writing contest for a local newspaper by writing about a dog that got loose on the field during a baseball game. When he was 14 years old, Kuralt became one of the youngest radio announcers in the country, covering minor-league baseball games and hosting a music show.[4] In 1948, he was named one of four NationalVoice of Democracy winners at age 14, where he won a $500 scholarship. Later, atCharlotte's Central High School, Kuralt was voted "Most Likely to Succeed" in his graduating class of 1951.[12]
He attended theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There, he joined the literary fraternitySt. Anthony Hall. He also became editor ofThe Daily Tar Heel and worked for WUNC radio.[2] He also had a starring role in a radio program calledAmerican Adventure: A Study of Man in The New World in the episode titled "Hearth Fire", which aired on August 4, 1955. It is a telling of the advent ofTVA's building lakes written byJohn Ehle and directed by John Clayton. During the summer, he also worked at WBTV in Charlotte.[10] He graduated from UNC in 1955 with a degree in history.[3][4]
After graduating from UNC, Kuralt worked as a reporter for theCharlotte News.[2] He wrote "Charles Kuralt's People," a column that won anErnie Pyle Award in 1956.[3][10] He moved toCBS in 1957 as a writer.[2] When he was 25 years old, he became the youngest correspondent in the history ofCBS News. He became the first host of the primetime seriesEyewitness to History in 1960.[4] He also covered the 1960 presidential election.[3]Variety said, "Kuralt's a comer. Young, good looking, full of poise and command, deep voiced and yet relaxed and not over-dramatic, he imparts a sense of authority and reliability to his task."[10]
In 1961, he became CBS's Chief Latin American Correspondent, covering 23 countries from a base inRio de Janeiro, Brazil.[14][3][4] In 1963, he became the Chief West Coast Correspondent, moving to Los Angeles.[15][14] The next year, he returned to New York City and the CBS News headquarters.[14] Starting in 1961, he did four tours inVietnam duringthe war.[3][4][16] Kuralt said, ""Every time I got sent to Vietnam I seemed to get into some terrible situation without really trying too hard. In 1961, we got the first combat footage of that stage of the war. It was before the U.S. was involved with troops in the field, but we went out with the Vietnamese Rangers and got ambushed. Half the company we were with got killed. We were lucky as hell not to get killed."[16]
He also covered the revolution in the Congo (nowDemocratic Republic of the Congo).[3][4][16] In 1967, Kuralt and a CBS camera crew spent eight weeks withRalph Plaisted in his first attempt to reach the North Pole bysnowmobile, which resulted in the documentaryTo the Top of the World and his book of the same name.[16]
Kuralt was said to have tired of what he considered the excessive rivalry between reporters on the hard news beats.[17] He said, "I didn't like the competitiveness or the deadline pressure," he told theAcademy of Television Arts & Sciences, upon his induction into their Hall of Fame. "I was sure thatDick Valeriani of NBC was sneaking around behind my back—and of course, he was!—getting stories that would make me look bad the next day. Even though I covered news for a long time, I was always hoping I could get back to something like my little column on theCharlotte News."[17]
Tired of covering war stories, Kuralt proposed to his bosses a new project: "How about no assignments at all? How about three months of rolling down the Great American Highway, just to see what he could see?"[16] He finally persuaded CBS to let him try out the idea for three months with a three-person crew. It turned into a quarter-century project, with Kuralt logging more than a million miles.[3] "On the Road" became a regular feature onThe CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite in 1967 and ran through 1980.[18][4]
Kuralt hit the road in a motor home (he wore out six before he was through) with a small crew and avoided theinterstates in favor of the nation's back roads in search of America's people and their doings. He said, "Interstate highways allow you to drive coast to coast, without seeing anything".[19]
According to Thomas Steinbeck, the older son ofJohn Steinbeck, the inspiration for "On the Road" was Steinbeck'sTravels with Charley (whose title was initially considered as the name of Kuralt's feature). During his career, he won threePeabody Awards and tenEmmy Awards for journalism. He also won aGeorge Polk Awards in 1980 for National Television Reporting.[citation needed]
In 2011, Kuralt's format was revived by CBS News, withSteve Hartman taking Kuralt's space. As of 2023[update], Hartman continues to host the segment weekly on theCBS Evening News.[20]
On January 28, 1979, CBS launchedCBS News Sunday Morning with Kuralt as host. On October 27, 1980, he was added as host of the weekday broadcasts of CBS'Morning show as well, joined withDiane Sawyer as weekday co-host on September 28, 1981.[4] Kuralt left the weekday broadcasts in March 1982, but continued to anchorSunday Morning. In 1989, he covered the democracy movement in China. From 1990 to 1991, he was an anchor onAmerica Tonight. On April 3, 1994, he retired after 15 years as a host ofSunday Morning, and was replaced byCharles Osgood.[4]
At age 60, Kuralt surprised many by retiring from CBS News. At the time, he was the longest tenured on-air personality in the News Division. However, he hinted that his retirement might not be complete. In 1995, he narrated theTLC documentaryThe Revolutionary War. In 1996, he presented a short-lived show on theDisney Channel calledThis I Believe.[21] In early 1997, he signed on to host a syndicated, thrice-weekly, ninety-second broadcast,An American Moment, presenting whatCNN called "slices of Americana". He agreed to host a CBS cable broadcast show,I Remember, designed as a weekly, hour-long review of significant news from the three previous decades.[3]
On August 25, 1954, Kuralt married Jean Sory Guthery ofCharlotte, North Carolina.[22] At the time, both Kuralt and Sory were seniors at UNC.[23] They had two daughters, Susan Bowers and Lisa Bowers White. The marriage ended in divorce in 1960. He married Suzanne Baird in 1962.[3] They lived in New York City.[4]
Kuralt refused to alter his habits in favor of healthier ones; he ate unhealthy food, drank and smoked. He was once pulled over for driving under the influence. Late in his life, Kuralt became ill withsystemic lupus erythematosus.[4] Kuralt died from heart failure on July 4, 1997, atNew York–Presbyterian Hospital, aged 62.[4] Kuralt is buried on the UNC grounds inOld Chapel Hill Cemetery.[24] His wife Suzanne died in 1999 and is buried next to him.
After Kuralt's death, questions about his estate led to the public disclosure of his three-decade companionship with aMontana woman named Patricia Shannon (formerly Patricia Shannon Baker). Kuralt met Shannon while doing a story on Pat Baker Park inReno, Nevada, which Shannon had promoted and volunteered to build in 1968.[25] The park was in a low-income area of Reno that had no parks until Shannon promoted her plan. Kuralt mentioned Shannon and the building of the park — but not the nature of their relationship — in a book he published in 1990 chronicling his early life and journalistic career.[26][27][28][29] With Shannon, Kuralt had a second, "shadow" family; he paid for Shannon to attend theInchbald School of Design, and helped to raise and financially support her three children. Kuralt's wife was apparently unaware of this.[26] After Kuralt's death, Shannon asserted that he had willed her a property inTwin Bridges, Montana; though it was contested by Kuralt's family, her claim was upheld by theMontana Supreme Court.[30][31][32][33][34]
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| Preceded by First | CBS News Sunday Morning anchor January 28, 1979 – April 3, 1994 | Succeeded by |
