Almanac: Charles Kuralt
And now a page from our "Sunday Morning" Almanac: Sept. 10, 1934, 83 years ago today ... the day Charles Kuralt was born in Wilmington, North Carolina.
An award-winning young newspaper reporter, Kuralt rose rapidly to become a CBS News correspondent at just 23 years of age.
With an on-air poise beyond his years, and a way with words beyond anyone else in the business, Kuralt masterfully covered every kind of story.
In the fall of 1967, Kuralt began his longest journey yet -- his years of travel "On the Road" looking for little stories everyone else had missed. Along the way, he found avid, if unusual collectors. Not to mention, athletes of remarkable longevity.
And then, in January of 1979, Kuralt went on to anchor the premiere of "Sunday Morning." He continued for its first 15 years by delivering a weekly reflection of his love for our country and our people.
His final sign-off, in 1994, invoked as only he could the words of the poet Clarence Day: "Remember, please, when I am gone. 'Twas inspiration led me on. Tiddly widdly, doodle oo. All I want is to stay with you. But here I go. Goodbye."
Kuralt died just three years later in 1997, on July Fourth no less.
To this day, all of us here at "Sunday Morning" do our best to keep his memory alive, and to carry on.