Celebrity Death Tolls Rises to 10: Walter Cronkite Dead

I didn’t get home in time to save Cronkite. I arrived at about 3:30PM today. Though he died at 7:42PM at his Manhattan home, I guess the ‘celebrity-death curse’ includes my travel days regardless of my arrival time.

First it was Ed McMahon, then Farrah, M Jackson, pitchman Billy Mays, My Little Margie’s star, impressionist Fred Travalena, actor Karl Malden, NFL QB McNair, ex-Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, and now Cronkite.

“The most trusted man in America,” died from cerebral vascular disease. Most will remember him as the face of the “CBS Evening News” from 1962 to 1981. It was Cronkite who read the bulletins from Dallas when Kennedy was shot on 22 November 1963.

His 1968 editorial declaring the United States was “mired in stalemate” in Vietnam was seen by some as a turning point in U.S. opinion of the war. Not I. No journalist has that much power over the US government. It was the bloody politician that wouldn’t let us fight to win.

I leave again on Sunday. Who will be next? Remember it always happen in 3s AND while I’m on the road…

 Drink one for me,

Woody

 

~ by Frank Wood on 17 July 2009.