Walter Cronkite announces death of JFK, November 22, 1963

[madfloridian]

Last edited Sun Nov 17, 2013, 06:17 PM - Edit history (1)

Notice his caution, notice the lack of sensationalism. I was at a local mall when we heard the news. People just stopped where they were, tears flowing openly.

[MrMickeysMom]

1. A different kind of America, and Cronkite was the last of this kind of media...

I could not appreciate it as a 10 year old, having lost my dad a year earlier… It's so much clearer "looking back" on how things changed since then.

We were all changed. I miss Cronkite...

[louis-t]

2. I was watching on tv as he announced it.

We had just been sent home from school. Still don't like talking about it.

[NNadir]

9. I was too. I walked into the house just as Cronkite announced it.

My mother was weeping; I was just a child, but I wept too.

[Faygo Kid]

3. Please edit to spell his name correctly.

It's Cronkite. He and we deserve that.

[madfloridian]

10. Sorry, copied the subject line from an article...wasn't paying attention.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. I remember watching this.

I had just turned 18 2 weeks earlier, and was at the dentist, in Seattle.
I had just been seated in the chair, the dentist was called out of the room, then came back in
and said " you need to go home, the President has been shot". The dentist staff were all standing by the portable radio in the office.
When I got home, the family was watching Cronkite, tense and nervous as hell, because back then most people were seriously afraid
of "Communists" and Russia. Many thought Russia had attacked the President, and that bombs may follow.
All a product of the Cold War scare. We were pretty politically naive back then.

When Cronkite announced the "official" death notice, his choking up made as much an impact on us as the news did.
I remember feeling very sad for him.

Like most other people, we were glued to the tv for the next few days, following the funeral events.
On CBS, of course.
He WAS the most trusted man in news, seriously.

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

5. Yeah,

remember it like yesterday of course, as it made quite the impact on the old memory circuits. Just thinking of it and I'm 10 years old again, afraid of the future, and not knowing what had just happened. It's powerful.

[Chiquitita]

6. Walter Cronkite was the standard

for me against which every TV journalist was measured... until the quality of TV news crumbled and stopped watching.

[yuiyoshida]

7. It looks like it caught him a bit in the

throat when it was confirmed. You could tell he was affected by this.. even with the glasses coming on and off.

[madfloridian]

8. It was a strange event to be in that mall with mostly strangers when we heard the news.

everyone moved, saddened, afraid. Nobody apologized for the tears. They seemed natural and needed.