Jul 18, 2009 10:25 pm US/Eastern
Cronkite Remembered As Friend, Colleague, Mentor
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Walter Cronkite speaks during the PBS segment of the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour panel discussion at the Ritz Carlton Hotel on Jan. 15, 2006, in Pasadena, Calif.
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
Those who knew Walter Cronkite personally have nothing but the highest praise for the newsman they describe as humble and hard-working, good-humored and tough.
Many in New York considered Cronkite a friend, a colleague, and even a regular restaurant customer.
In the front window of Patsy's, on West 56th Street, sits a photo of Walter Cronkite with the owner of the restaurant. Cronkite was a regular patron at the eatery.
"He was so gracious, nice, and humble," owner Sal Scognamillo said. "Every time he'd walk through the dining room, people would start clapping.
"The last time a saw him was about a year and a half ago, he came in for dinner with Nick Clooney – and Nick's son, George Clooney, picked up the check for the whole table," Scognamillo said.
For CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric, breaking bread with "the most trusted man in America" was an experience she'll never forget.
"He took me out to dinner and talked to me about the job, and talked about journalism and talked about various stories that he had covered and his effort to be fair and impartial and objective," Couric said. "It was a wonderful opportunity for me to spend some time with him."
"I have such a great pride that Walter Cronkite was a part of this family, representing the best that we are as news reporters and the best that we are as a network," CBS President and CEO Les Moonves said.
"Walter used to talk to the reporters, he'd call you out on the beat – 'what's going on, why did they say this, why did they do that,'" Schieffer says. "But, on those days when Walter would call you after the broadcast and say, 'good job on that tonight,' you really felt good about it because that was the highest compliment you could get."
"No one has that power today, either in print or in radio or television," former colleague Barbara Walters says.
Walter Cronkite was repeatedly urged to run for President of the United States. Cronkite's cousin, Kay Barnes, was the Mayor of Kansas City.
"I said, 'well why don't you run' and he said 'well I would have to go through a campaign,'" Barnes says. "We both laughed and he said 'yes, even Walter Cronkite would have to go through a campaign,' so he decided not to."
"His friends would say, 'you'd make a hell of a president,' and he'd say, 'no, no I like who I am,' and that conversation happened right here at this table," Scognamillo says.
Walter Cronkite was America's voice – a voice that, over the decades, was so often heard right inside Patsy's, at his favorite table, with him surrounded by family, friends and colleagues who consider themselves very lucky to have known him.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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