Charles Kuralt (September 10, 1934 – July 4, 1997) was an American journalist. He was most widely known for his long career with CBS, first for his "On the Road" segments on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and later as the first anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning, a position he held for fifteen years.

Kuralt's "On the Road" segments were recognized twice with personal Peabody Awards. The first, awarded in 1968, cited those segments as heartwarming and "nostalgic vignettes"; in 1975, the award was for his work as a U.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."^[1] He shared in a third Peabody awarded to CBS News Sunday Morning.

Early life and career[link]

Kuralt was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. 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. Charles’ father, Wallace H. Kuralt. Sr., moved his family to Charlotte in 1945, when he became Director of Public Welfare in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.^[2] Their house ^[3] off Sharon Road, then 10 miles south of the city, was the only structure in the area. During the years he lived in that house, Kuralt became one of the youngest radio announcers in the country. Later, at Charlotte’s Central High School, Kuralt was voted “Most Likely to Succeed.”^[4] In 1948, he was named one of four National Voice of Democracy winners at age 14, where he won a $500 scholarship. He later attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he became editor of The Daily Tar Heel and joined St. Anthony Hall. He worked as a reporter for the Charlotte News in his home state, where he wrote "Charles Kuralt's People," a column that won him an Ernie Pyle Award. He moved to CBS as a writer, where he became well known as the host of the Eyewitness to History series. He traveled around the world as a journalist for the network, including stints as CBS's Chief Latin American Correspondent and then as Chief West Coast Correspondent.^[5]

In 1967, Kuralt and a CBS camera crew accompanied Ralph Plaisted in his attempt to reach the North Pole by snowmobile, which resulted in the documentary To the Top of the World and his book of the same name.

"On the Road"[link]

Kuralt was said to have tired of what he considered the excessive rivalry between reporters on the hard news beats:

"I didn't like the competitiveness or the deadline pressure," he told the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, upon his induction to their Hall of Fame. "I was sure that Dick 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 the Charlotte News."^[6]

When he persuaded CBS to let him try out just such an idea for three months, it turned into a quarter-century project. "On the Road" became a regular feature on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite in 1967.^[7] Kuralt hit the road in a motor home (he wore out six before he was through) with a small crew and avoided the interstates 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".^[8]

According to Thomas Steinbeck, the older son of John Steinbeck, the inspiration for "On the Road" was Steinbeck's Travels with Charley (whose title was initially considered as the name of Kuralt's feature). During his career, he won three Peabody awards and ten Emmy awards for journalism. He also won a George Polk Award in 1980 for National Television Reporting.

Retirement and death[link]

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. Yet he hinted that his retirement might not be complete — in 1995 he narrated the TLC documentary The Revolutionary War and in early 1997 he signed on to host a syndicated, three-times-a-week, ninety-second broadcast, "An American Moment," presenting what CNN called "slices of Americana." At that time, Kuralt also agreed to host a CBS cable broadcast show, I Remember, designed as a weekly, hourlong review of significant news from the three previous decades.

He was hospitalized in 1997 and died of complications from lupus, aged 62, that year.

One of Kuralt's books was titled North Carolina Is My Home. Kuralt's younger brother Wallace, who died in December 2003, was also well known in his home state, having been the owner of The Intimate Bookshop on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill for many years. In addition, a portion of land along the Roanoke, Tar, Neuse, Cape Fear Ecosystem — so named for the rivers which flow into the Albemarle, Currituck, and Pamlico Sounds — has been named for Kuralt, honoring his having given as much time to nature and wildlife as to people in his "On the Road" and Sunday Morning stories.

By request in his will, Kuralt was buried on the UNC grounds in Old Chapel Hill Cemetery.^[9] The University uses a Kuralt speech in its television commercials and displays many of his awards and a re-creation of his office in its Journalism School.

Posthumous controversy[link]

Two years after his death, Kuralt's personal reputation came under scrutiny when a decades-long companionship with a Montana woman named Patricia Shannon was made public. Kuralt apparently had a second, "shadow" family with Shannon while his wife lived in New York City and his daughters from a previous marriage lived on the eastern seaboard. Shannon asserted that the house in Montana had been willed to her, a position upheld by the Montana Supreme Court. According to court testimony, Kuralt had met Shannon while doing a story on "Pat Baker Park" in Reno, Nevada, that Shannon had promoted and volunteered to build in 1968. The park was in a low-income area of Reno that had no parks until Shannon promoted her plan. Kuralt mentions Pat Shannon and the building of the park — but not the affair — in his autobiography.^{[10][11][12][13]}

References[link]

External links[link]

• Charles Kuralt Collection, 1935-1997 in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• Ralph Grizzle, Remembering Charles Kuralt. Asheville, North Carolina: Kenilworth Media, 2000. (ISBN 0967909600)
• Charles Kuralt's People. Asheville, North Carolina: Kenilworth Media, 2005. A collection of his award winning Charlotte News columns.
• Booknotes interview with Kuralt on Charles Kuralt's America, December 31, 1995.
• CNN, "Charles Kuralt, CBS's Poet of Small-Town America, Dies at 62", a CNN obituary
• In re Estate of Kuralt, 15 P.3d 931 (2000)
• Find-A-Grave profile for Charles Kuralt

Joseph Charles, Jr. (born January 6, 1944) is an American Democratic Party politician, who served in the New Jersey Senate from 2002 to 2003, where he represented the 31st legislative district. He had also served in the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature, the General Assembly, from 1982 to 2002. He currently serves as a Judge of the New Jersey Superior Court, a position he was appointed to in 2003 by then Gov. James McGreevey.

Charles resigned from his seat in the Senate effective August 18, 2003, and was replaced by L. Harvey Smith.^[1]

He served in the Senate on the Labor Committee (as Co-Chair) and the Budget and Appropriations Committee.^[2]

While in the Assembly, he served as Minority Leader Pro Tempore from 1997 to 2001, Minority Budget Officer from 1998 to 1999, Assistant Minority Leader from 1994 to 1995, Associate Minority Leader from 1992 to 1993 and again from 1996 to 1997, and as Assistant Majority Leader from 1990 to 1991. He has been an attorney with the firm of Ashley and Charles, and served as a Deputy Attorney General from 1970 to 1971.^[2]

Charles graduated with a B.A. from Rutgers University in Chemistry, and was awarded a J.D. from Rutgers School of Law-Newark.^[2]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Senator Charles' legislative web page, New Jersey Legislature, backed up by the Internet Archive as of April 27, 2003.

Andy Rooney
Born	Andrew Aitken Rooney (1919-01-14)January 14, 1919 Albany, New York[1]
Died	November 4, 2011(2011-11-04) (aged 92) New York City, New York
Notable work(s)	The weekly broadcast "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney" on 60 Minutes
Notable award(s)	Emmy 2003 Lifetime Achievement 1980 "Tanks" 1980 "Grain" 1978 "Who Owns What in America" 1968 "Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed"
Spouse(s)	Marguerite Rooney (m. 1942–2004) «start: (1942)–end+1: (2005)»"Marriage: Marguerite Rooney to Andy Rooney" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Andy_Rooney)(her death)
Children	Brian, Emily, Martha, Ellen
Influences Harry Reasoner, Mike Wallace, E. B. White

Andrew Aitken "Andy" Rooney (January 14, 1919 – November 4, 2011) was an American radio and television writer. He was most notable for his weekly broadcast "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney," a part of the CBS News program 60 Minutes from 1978 to 2011. His final regular appearance on 60 Minutes aired October 2, 2011. He died one month later, on November 4, 2011, at age 92.

Early life[link]

Andrew Rooney was born in Albany, the son of Walter Scott Rooney (1888–1959) and Ellinor (Reynolds) Rooney (1886–1980). He attended The Albany Academy,^[2] and later attended Colgate University in Hamilton in Central New York,^[3] where he was initiated into the Sigma Chi fraternity, before he was drafted into the United States Army in August 1941.

World War II[link]

Rooney began his career in newspapers while in the Army when, in 1942, he began writing for Stars and Stripes in London during World War II.^[4]

In February 1943, flying with the Eighth Air Force, he was one of six correspondents who flew on the second American bombing raid over Germany.^[5] Later, he was one of the first American journalists to visit the Nazi concentration camps near the end of World War II, and one of the first to write about them. During a segment on Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation, Rooney stated that he had been opposed to World War II because he was a pacifist. He recounted that what he saw in those concentration camps made him ashamed that he had opposed the war and permanently changed his opinions about whether "just wars" exist.

For his service as a war correspondent in combat zones during the war Rooney was decorated with the Bronze Star Medal and Air Medal.^[6]

Rooney's 1995 memoir, My War, chronicles his war reporting. In addition to recounting firsthand several notable historical events and people (including the entry into Paris and the Nazi concentration camps), Rooney describes how it shaped his experience both as a writer and reporter.^[5]

Career[link]

Rooney joined CBS in 1949, as a writer for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts,^[5] when Godfrey was at his peak on CBS radio and TV. It opened the show up to a variety of viewers. The program was a hit, reaching number one in 1952, during Rooney's tenure with the program. It was the beginning of a close life-long friendship between Rooney and Godfrey. He wrote for Godfrey's daytime radio and TV show Arthur Godfrey Time. He later moved on to The Garry Moore Show,^[7] which became a hit program. During the same period, he wrote for CBS News public affairs programs such as The Twentieth Century.

According to CBS News's biography of him, "Rooney wrote his first television essay, a longer-length precursor of the type he does on 60 Minutes, in 1964, "An Essay on Doors."^[8] From 1962, to 1968, he collaborated with another close friend, the late CBS News correspondent Harry Reasoner — Rooney writing and producing, Reasoner narrating — on such notable CBS News specials as "An Essay on Bridges" (1965),^[8] "An Essay on Hotels" (1966),^[8] "An Essay on Women" (1967),^[8] and "The Strange Case of the English Language" (1968).^[8] In 1968, he wrote two CBS News specials in the series "Of Black America,"^[8] and his script for "Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed" won him his first Emmy."^[9]

When CBS declined to broadcast "An Essay on War" in 1970, Rooney quit CBS and read the opinion himself on PBS — his first appearance on television.^[10] That show in 1971 won Rooney his third Writers Guild Award.^[8] Rooney re-joined CBS in 1973, to write and produce special programs.^[10] Rooney also wrote the script for the 1975 documentary FDR: The Man Who Changed America.

After his return to the network, Rooney wrote and appeared in several prime-time specials for CBS, including In Praise of New York City (1974),^[7] the Peabody Award-winning Mr. Rooney Goes to Washington (1975),^[7] Mr. Rooney Goes to Dinner (1978),^[7] and Mr. Rooney Goes to Work (1977).^[7] Transcripts of these specials, as well as of some of the earlier collaborations with Reasoner, are contained in the book A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney. Another special, Andy Rooney Takes Off, followed in 1984.

[edit] A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney

Rooney's "end-of-show" segment on 60 Minutes, "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney" (originally "Three Minutes or So With Andy Rooney"^[5]), began in 1978, as a summer replacement for the debate segment "Point/Counterpoint"^[5] featuring Shana Alexander and James Kilpatrick. The segment proved popular enough with viewers that beginning in the fall of 1978, it was seen in alternate weeks with the debate segment. At the end of the 1978–1979 season, "Point/Counterpoint" was dropped altogether.^[5]

In the segment, Rooney typically offered satire on a trivial everyday issue, such as the cost of groceries, annoying relatives, or faulty Christmas presents. Rooney's appearances on "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney" often included whimsical lists, e.g., types of milk,^[11] bottled water brands,^[12] car brands,^[13] sports mascots,^[14] etc. In later years, his segments became more political as well. Despite being best known for his television presence on 60 Minutes, Rooney always considered himself a writer who incidentally appeared on television behind his famous walnut table, which he made himself.

Controversies[link]

Rooney made a number of comments which elicited strong reactions from fans and producers alike.

Insensitivity towards minorities[link]

Rooney wrote a column in 1992 that posited that it was "silly" for Native Americans to complain about team names like the Redskins, in which he wrote in part, "The real problem is, we took the country away from the Indians, they want it back and we're not going to give it to them. We feel guilty and we'll do what we can for them within reason, but they can't have their country back. Next question."^[15]

In a 2007 column for Tribune media services, he wrote, "I know all about Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, but today's baseball stars are all guys named Rodriguez to me." Rooney later commented, "Yeah, I probably shouldn't have said it, [but] it's a name that seems common in baseball now. I certainly didn't think of it in any derogatory sense."^[15]

In 1990, Rooney was suspended without pay for three months by then-CBS News President David Burke, because of the negative publicity around his saying that "too much alcohol, too much food, drugs, homosexual unions, cigarettes [are] all known to lead to premature death."^[16] He wrote an explanatory letter to a gay organization after being ordered not to do so. After only four weeks without Rooney, 60 Minutes lost 20 percent of its audience. CBS management then decided that it was in the best interest of the network to have Rooney return immediately.^[17]

After Rooney's reinstatement, he made his remorse public:

Rooney always denied that he was a racist. In the 1940s, he was arrested after sitting in the back of a segregated bus in protest.^[19] Also, in 2008, when Barack Obama was elected President of the United States, Rooney applauded the fact that "the citizens of this country, 80 percent of whom are white, freely chose to elect a black man as their leader simply because they thought he was the best choice." He said that makes him proud, and that it proves that the country has "come a long way — a good way."^[20]

Remarks on Kurt Cobain's suicide[link]

In a 1994 segment, Rooney attracted controversy with his remarks on Kurt Cobain's suicide. He expressed his dismay that the death of Richard Nixon was overshadowed by Cobain's suicide, stating that he had never heard of Cobain nor his band, Nirvana. He went on to say that Cobain's suicide made him angry. "A lot of people would like to have the years left that he threw away," Rooney said. "What's all this nonsense about how terrible life is?" he asked, adding rhetorically to a young woman who had wept at the suicide, "I'd love to relieve the pain you're going through by switching my age for yours." In addition, he asked "What would all these young people be doing if they had real problems like a Depression, World War II or Vietnam?" and commented that "If [Cobain] applied the same brain to his music that he applied to his drug-infested life, it's reasonable to think that his music may not have made much sense either."^[21]

On the following Sunday's show, he apologized on the air, saying he should have taken Cobain's depression into account. He also read only critical feedback from listeners without interjecting any commentary of his own.^[22][23]

Collections and retirement[link]

Rooney's shorter television essays have been archived in numerous books, such as Common Nonsense, which came out in 2002,^[24] and Years of Minutes, probably his best-known work, released in 2003.^[25] He penned a regular syndicated column for Tribune Media Services that ran in many newspapers in the United States, and which has been collected in book form. He won three Emmy Awards for his essays,^[26] which numbered over 1,000. He was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 2003.^[27] Rooney's renown made him a frequent target of parodies and impersonations by a diverse group of comedic figures, including Frank Caliendo, Rich Little and Beavis.

In 1993, CBS released a two-volume VHS tape set of the best of Rooney's commentaries and field reports, called "The Andy Rooney Television Collection — His Best Minutes." In 2006, CBS released three DVDs of his more recent commentaries, "Andy Rooney On Almost Everything," "Things That Bother Andy Rooney," and "Andy Rooney's Solutions."^{[citation needed]}

Rooney's final regular appearance on 60 Minutes was on October 2, 2011,^[28] after 33 years on the show.^[29] It was his 1,097th commentary.^[30]

Views[link]

He claimed on Larry King Live to have a liberal bias, stating, "There is just no question that I, among others, have a liberal bias. I mean, I'm consistently liberal in my opinions."^[31] In a controversial 1999 book Rooney self-identified as agnostic,^[32] but by 2004 he was calling himself an atheist.^[33] He reaffirmed this in 2008.^[34] Over the years, many of his editorials poked fun at the concept of God and organized religion. Increased speculation on this was brought to a head by a series of comments he made regarding Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ (2004).^[35]

Though Rooney has been called Irish-American, he once said "I'm proud of my Irish heritage, but I'm not Irish. I'm not even Irish-American. I am American, period."

In 2005, when four people were fired at CBS News perhaps because of the Killian documents controversy, Rooney said, "The people on the front lines got fired while the people most instrumental in getting the broadcast on escaped." Others at CBS had "kept mum" about the controversy.^[36]

Personal life[link]

Rooney was married to Marguerite "Margie" Rooney (née Howard) for 62 years, until she died of heart failure in 2004. He later wrote, "her name does not appear as often as it originally did [in my essays] because it hurts too much to write it."^[37] They had four children; Brian, Emily, Martha and Ellen. His daughter Emily Rooney is a TV talk show host and former ABC News producer who went on to host a nightly Boston-area public affairs program, Greater Boston, on WGBH. Emily's identical twin, Martha, became Chief of the Public Services Division at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland. The third daughter, Ellen, is a photographer based in London. His son, Brian Rooney, has been a correspondent for ABC since the 1980s.

Rooney also had a sister Nancy Reynolds Rooney (1915–2008).

Rooney lived in the Rowayton section of Norwalk, Connecticut,^[38] and in Rensselaerville, New York,^[39] and was a longtime season ticket holder for the New York Giants.^[40]

Death[link]

Rooney was hospitalized on October 25, 2011, after developing postoperative complications from an undisclosed surgery,^[41] and died on November 4, 2011, at the age of 92, less than five weeks after his last appearance on 60 Minutes.^[42][43]

Awards[link]

• 2001 — Emperor Has No Clothes Award from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.^[44]

Books[link]

Books written by Rooney:

• Conquerors' Peace; report to the American stockholders, by Oram C. Hutton and Andrew A. Rooney. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1947.
• A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney, 1981 (ISBN 0-689-11194-0)
• And More by Andy Rooney, 1985 (ISBN 0-517-40622-5)
• Pieces of My Mind, 1986 (ISBN 0-689-11492-3)
• The Most of Andy Rooney, 1986 (ISBN 0-689-11864-3)
• Word for Word, 1988 (ISBN 0-399-13200-7)
• Not That You Asked ..., 1989 (ISBN 0-394-57837-6)
• Most of Andy Rooney, 1990 (ISBN 0-88365-765-1)
• Sweet and Sour, 1992 (ISBN 0-399-13774-2)
• My War, 1997 (ISBN 0-517-17986-5)
• Sincerely, Andy Rooney, 1999 (ISBN 1-891620-34-7)
• The Complete Andy Rooney, 2000 (ISBN 0-446-11219-4)
• Common Nonsense, 2002, (ISBN 1-586482-00-9)
• Years of Minutes, 2003 (ISBN 1-58648-211-4)
• Out of My Mind, 2006 (ISBN 1-58648-416-8)
• 60 Years of Wisdom and Wit, 2009 (ISBN 1-58648-773-6)

References[link]

External links[link]

	Biography portal
	United States Army portal

• Andy Rooney at the Internet Movie Database
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Works by or about Andy Rooney in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Andy Rooney collected news and commentary at The Wall Street Journal
• CBS Biography
• Archive of previous "A Few Minutes ..." segments
• Snopes.com on Rooney E-Mail Snopes.com's article on false e-mail claims
• Andy Rooney Interview at Archive of American Television
• A film clip "The Open Mind - Andy Rooney on Andy Rooney (2003)" is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
• Andy Rooney at Find a Grave