And That's the Way It Was

To help celebrate my recent birthday, my husband took me to the LBJ Library & Museum here in Austin to see an exhibit on one of my heroes, broadcast journalist and anchorman Walter Cronkite.

When I was a journalism student at The University of Texas at Austin, I once had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Cronkite (who graduated from UT).  The encounter was brief yet serendipitous.  Basically I ran into him in an elevator.  But he was, as you might imagine, very kind.  Shaking his hand filled me with such a sense of awe, I forgot to get off on my floor and had to ride it back down again.

The library’s exhibit is a lovely, touching, and very thorough tribute.  A mixture of displayed mementos, newspaper clippings, audio tapes, video clips – very appropriate considering his background in print, radio, and television journalism.

His microphone:



A clip of him announcing the death of President Kennedy:



One of his many Emmy Awards.  This particular one, for his in-depth report on Watergate, was the one he was most proud of.

Uncle Walter was quite quotable, too.  My favorite is the one about "doing something" ...

         

The edited script for his editorial report on the Vietnam War:

And so much more.  The exhibit will be on display through January 3, 2011.  The permanent exhibit at the library is also quite fascinating, detailing Lyndon Baines Johnson's life and presidency, as well as many other historic moments of the 1960's. 

Those of you who are coming to Austin for the Texas Book Festival might want to arrive a day or two early or stay through Monday in order to take in the LBJ Library & Museum.  Book and film fanatics would also enjoy the Harry Ransom Center, located just across campus from the library.