television broadcaster

Brinkley, David (10 July 1920–11 June 2003), broadcast journalist, was born David McClure Brinkley in Wilmington, North Carolina, the son of William Graham Brinkley, a railroad worker, and Mary MacDonald West. Brinkley's father died when the boy was eight, leaving him in the care of a dour, deeply religious mother. Brinkley, seeking escape through reading, spent hours at the Wilmington Public Library. He also enjoyed writing. Encouraged by his high school English teacher, Brinkley worked part‐time at Wilmington's afternoon newspaper, the ...

Collingwood, Charles Cummings (04 June 1917–03 October 1985), broadcast journalist and foreign correspondent, was born in Three Rivers, Michigan, the son of George Harris Collingwood, a professor and forester, and Jean Grinnell Cummings. In 1935 Collingwood spent two years at Deep Springs College in Death Valley, California, an experimental school modeled on the Oxford system. In 1937 Collingwood transferred to Cornell, where he graduated cum laude in 1939. The same year he was awarded a Rhodes scholarship. In 1940, while attending Oxford University, he worked for the United Press wire service. In March 1941 he was invited by ...

Frederick, Pauline Annabel (13 February 1908–09 May 1990), journalist, was born in Gallitzin, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Matthew Phillip Frederick, a postmaster, and Susan Catharine Stanley. The family later settled in Harrisburg, where her father worked for the state in jobs ranging from factory inspector to director of the Bureau of Industrial Relations....

Friendly, Fred W. (30 October 1915–03 March 1998), broadcast journalist and television producer, was born Ferdinand Friendly Wachenheimer in New York City, the son of Samuel Wachenheimer, a jewelry manufacturer, and Therese Friendly Wachenheimer. Around 1926 his family moved to Providence, Rhode Island. Although he was an undistinguished student, he was fervently interested in radio and history during his youth. After graduating from Hope Street High School, he attended Nichols Junior College in Dudley, Massachusetts, majoring in business administration. In 1937 he was hired as a radio announcer and newscaster at a station in Providence, where his employers insisted that he change his name to Fred Friendly. During his tenure at the station he wrote and narrated five-minute documentaries about men such as the inventors ...

Heatter, Gabriel (17 September 1890–30 March 1972), broadcast commentator, was born on the Lower East Side of New York City, the son of Henry Heatter, a tailor, and Anna Fishman. Both of Heatter’s parents were immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He grew up in a Jewish community in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, leaving high school without a diploma. In 1915 he married Saidie Hermalin, a schoolteacher; they had two children. Heatter began his journalism career first as a part-time reporter for a Brooklyn newspaper and in 1909 as a full-time reporter for the ...

Huntley, Chet (10 December 1911–20 March 1974), broadcast journalist, was born Chester Robert Huntley in Cardwell, Montana, the son of Percy Adams “Pat” Huntley, a railroad telegrapher, and Blanche Wadine Tatham, a former schoolteacher. In 1913 his parents claimed a homestead on 960 acres of land near Saco in northern Montana. Chet’s earliest memories were of farm chores, and his early schooling was in a one-room schoolhouse built on a corner of his parents’ land, where he was taught to read by phonics (sounding out letters), a system he later advocated....

Ifill, Gwen (29 Sept. 1955–14 Nov. 2016), political reporter, network TV news correspondent and anchorwoman, was born Gwendolyn L. Ifill in Queens, New York, the fifth of six children of Oliver Urchille Ifill, Sr., and Eleanor Husband Ifill. The parents were immigrants from Panama and Barbados, more specifically “Zonians” because they were labor that built and maintained the then U.S.-controlled Panama Canal....

Linkletter, Art (17 July 1912–26 May 2010), radio talk-show host, television personality, and author, was born Arthur Gordon (or Gordon Arthur; sources differ) Kelly in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada, and left by his unwed parents on the doorsteps of a local church when he was a few weeks old. He was adopted by Fulton John Linkletter, a one-legged cobbler and itinerant evangelical preacher, and his wife Mary Metzler. In ...

McGee, Frank (12 September 1921–17 April 1974), television news journalist, was born Doctor Frank McGee in Monroe, Louisiana, the son of Robert Albert McGee, a farmer and sawmill owner, and Calla Brown. His parents divorced when he was a child, and his mother married Lannie Crocker, an oil field worker. His family, like many during the depression, had very little money....

Murrow, Edward R. (25 April 1908–27 April 1965), broadcast journalist, was born Egbert Roscoe Murrow in Polecat Creek, near Greensboro, North Carolina, the son of Roscoe Murrow, a farmer and later an engineer on a logging railroad, and Ethel Lamb, a teacher. The Murrow family soon traveled to the state of Washington, which was still thought of as a frontier, full of labor strikes and conflicts over free speech, trade unionism, and legislative reform....

Reasoner, Harry (17 April 1923–06 August 1991), broadcast journalist, was born in Dakota City, Iowa, the son of Harry Ray Reasoner, a school superintendent, and Eunice Nicholl, a teacher. His parents traveled extensively, but Reasoner considered Humboldt, Iowa, his hometown because he had lived there as a child and had spent summers there visiting his grandparents and other relatives. In 1935 the Reasoner family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he graduated from West High School in 1941. Reasoner worked for the ...

Reynolds, Frank (29 November 1923–20 July 1983), pioneer broadcast journalist and network television anchorman, was born in East Chicago, Indiana, the son of Frank James Reynolds, a manager at Inland Steel Company, and Helen Duffy. He attended Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, but left when he was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II. He served as a staff sergeant from 1943 until 1945, receiving a purple heart for wounds sustained in Kassel, Germany, when shrapnel lodged in his left thigh. After a medical discharge, he attended Indiana University but never graduated. A practicing Roman Catholic, he married Henrietta Mary Harpster in 1947. They had five sons, two of whom also became broadcast journalists....

Rukeyser, Louis Richard (30 January 1933–02 May 2006), financial journalist and television commentator, was born in New York City, the second of four sons of Merryle Stanley Rukeyser, a financial editor of the New York Herald Tribune and columnist for Hearst newspapers, and Berenice Helene Simon Rukeyser....

Safer, Morley (8 Nov. 1931–19 May 2016), television and print journalist, was the youngest of three children born in Toronto, Canada to Max Safer, an Austrian Jew who owned an upholstery shop and Anna Cohn Safer, a Cockney seamstress from London’s East End....

Savitch, Jessica (01 February 1948–23 October 1983), journalist, was born Jessica Beth Savitch in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, the daughter of David Savitch, a clothing merchant, and Florence Spadoni, a registered nurse. The eldest of the couple’s three daughters, Savitch attributed her interest in journalism to her father, who insisted that dinner-table conversation be focused on current events and issues. His death, when Savitch was twelve years old, would be the first of several tragedies shaping her life. The changed financial situation of the family forced Florence Savitch to return to nursing and was a major factor years later in Savitch’s decision to attend Ithaca College, the least expensive of the schools she wanted to attend. She completed a degree in communications in 1968....

Schoenbrun, David Franz (15 March 1915–23 May 1988), broadcast journalist, was born in New York City, the son of Max Schoenbrun, a traveling jewelry salesman, and Lucy Cassirer. Schoenbrun’s career in news began in large part because of his fluency in foreign languages. After graduating from New York City College in 1934, he worked as a high school teacher of French and Spanish. He also worked as a labor relations adjuster, as an editor of a trade newsletter for the Dress Manufacturers Association, and as a freelance writer. In 1942 he worked for the Office of War Information doing propaganda analysis on the western European news desk....