AP Obits--07/18/09
Obitsman
aths
Obituaries in the news
By the Associated Press
July 18, 2009
Walter Cronkite
NEW YORK (AP) _ Walter Cronkite, the premier TV anchorman of the
networks' golden age who reported a tumultuous time with reassuring
authority and came to be called"the most trusted man in America," died
Friday. He was 92.
Cronkite's longtime chief of staff, Marlene Adler, said Cronkite died at
his Manhattan home surrounded by family. She said the cause of death was
cerebral vascular disease.
Cronkite was the face of the"CBS Evening News" from 1962 to 1981, when
stories ranged from the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and
the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to racial and anti-war riots, Watergate
and the Iranian hostage crisis.
It was Cronkite who read the bulletins coming from Dallas when Kennedy
was shot Nov. 22, 1963, interrupting a live CBS-TV broadcast of the soap
opera"As the World Turns."
Cronkite was the broadcaster to whom the title"anchorman" was first
applied, and he came so identified in that role that eventually his own
name became the term for the job in other languages.
A former wire service reporter and war correspondent, he valued
accuracy, objectivity and understated compassion.
As many as 18 million households tuned in to Cronkite's top-rated
program each evening. Twice that number watched his final show, on March
6, 1981.
Cronkite won numerous Emmys and other awards for excellence in news
coverage. In 1978, he and the evening news were the first anchorman and
daily broadcast ever given a DuPont award. Other honors included the
1974 Gold Medal of the International Radio and Television Society, a
1974 George Polk journalism award and the 1969 William Allen White Award
for Journalistic Merit, the first ever to a broadcaster.
___
Henry Allingham
LONDON (AP) _ Henry Allingham, one of the last surviving veterans of
World War I and the world's oldest man, died Saturday. He was 113.
Allingham's longtime friend Dennis Goodwin said he died in his sleep at
St. Dunstan's care home in Ovingdean, near Brighton on England's south
coast.
Allingham was one of only two surviving serviceman from World War I in
Britain. The other is Harry Patch, who served in the trenches during the
conflict. There are no surviving French veterans. The last remaining
American veteran is Frank Woodruff Buckles of Charles Town, West
Virginia.
Allingham joined the Royal Naval Air Service _ precursor to the Royal
Air Force _ in 1915, and a year later took part in the Battle of
Jutland, the war's largest naval battle. During World War II he worked
on measures to counter magnetic mines.
He co-wrote an autobiography,"Kitchener's Last Volunteer," _ a reference
to Britain's war secretary who rallied men to the cause _ and was made
an Officer of France's Legion of Honor.
Allingham spent the last years of his life reminding others of the 9
million soldiers killed in the conflict, anxious that people should
remember their sacrifice.
___
Beverly Roberts
LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. (AP) _ Beverly Roberts, who co-starred with
Humphrey Bogart in the 1936 film"Two Around the World," died Monday. She
was 96.
Roberts died at her home in Laguna Niguel of natural causes, according
to Christina Baker, her second-cousin.
A Warner Bros. contract player from 1935, Roberts made her first film
with Al Jolson in"The Singing Kid." She also appeared with Bogart and
Pat O'Brien in"China Clipper" and with Errol Flynn and Joan Blondell
in"Perfect Specimen."
After leaving Warner Bros. in 1940, she toured the country as a singer
with the Dorsey Brothers band.
In 1950, she became administrator of Theater Authority, a post she held
for 25 years. In her later years, she worked in watercolor painting.