Morning Anchors Reflect On Evening Legend

Walter Cronkite and Harry Smith had something in common: morning news anchor slots.

Smith, co-anchor of "The Early Show", stopped by "The Early Show Saturday Edition" the day after Cronkite's death. The journalistic icon and longtime managing editor and anchor of the "CBS Evening News" was 92.

Fellow "Early Show" co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez anchored "The Early Show Saturday Edition," filling in for Erica Hill, along with regular "Early Show" co-anchor Chris Wragge.

Smith reminded viewers of something few knew: "Walter did the morning news here many, many, many, many years ago. Whenever I'd tell Walter, he always teased me. He said, 'The greatest success that CBS ever had in the morning was when I anchored the show.'

"He was correct. And I would always tease him back and say, 'Walter, was it you or was it the puppet?' When he did the morning news here, way back when, it was Walter Cronkite with a puppet. ... And they did the show together. (The puppet) was the comic relief.

" ... But it was very interesting, because he really had such a sense of pride about everything that he did. But he also had this wonderful sort of spectacular sense of humor. And he was generous. He had a very, very generous spirit because, as somebody coming along, sort of hoping in some tiny way to be following in his footsteps and trying to honor the legacy that he so profoundly built, all you were trying to d was do him proud. And I think that's what we're all still trying to do today."

"You think about the times he lived in," Smith said later, "especially some of the most turbulent times in modern American history, and we always see Walter Cronkite at the helm of a sailboat. And Walter was even-keeled. It didn't matter what the shoals were beneath, it didn't matter where the winds were blowing above, Walter was even-keeled, and he was steady, steady as she goes, Walter Cronkite."

Rodriguez observed that the U.S. space program was Cronkite's passion. "He said the most important story of the 20th century was the space program, space exploration," she said. "And how ironic that he died almost 40 years to the day of the moon landing, that we haven't been back to the moon since Walter Cronkite was in the chair. He wanted to go up in space, and probably would have liked to see us go back to the moon and continue that."

Wragge added, "Nobody covered space exploration better than CBS News and Walter Cronkite back in the day. It was probably the time when he was happiest on the air."