The Anchor's Anchor

Walter Cronkite, the face of CBS News from 1962 to 1981, died in New York on Friday, July 17, 2009, at the age of 92. Marlene Adler, Cronkite's chief of staff, said he died of cerebrovascular disease. Known for his reassuring authority and for being scrupulously fair, Cronkite earned the title "the most trusted man in America."

CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite said government control over broadcasting is like a threatening axe hanging over the industry. Cronkite went before a Senate sub-committee Sept. 30, 1971, to testify on freedom of the press.

Walter Cronkite, seen here in July 1972, was the face of the "CBS Evening News" from 1962 to 1981, when stories ranged from the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to racial and anti-war riots, Watergate and the Iranian hostage crisis.

CBS Founder William S. Paley is shown with news correspondent Walter Cronkite in an undated photo. Cronkite was the broadcaster to whom the title "anchorman" was first applied, and he became so identified in that role that his name became the term for it in other languages. Swedish anchors are known as Kronkiters; in Holland, they are Cronkiters.

The CBS News election night team poses for a promotional photo on Oct. 8, 1974. From left, Roger Mudd, Leslie Stahl, Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and Mike Wallace.

Walter Cronkite on the set of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, June 1, 1975. Two years earlier, the newsman was named the "most trusted" public figure in the country by Americans in a public opinion poll. He also became affectionately known to viewers as "Uncle Walter."

WJM news anchor Ted Baxter, played by Ted Knight, always dreamed that he'd meet his idol. Here, Baxter shakes hands with famed CBS newscaster Walter Cronkite when Cronkite appeared on an episode of the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" in 1975.

During his time on air at CBS, Cronkite, seen here in 1977, anchored coverage for such major events as the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, man's first walk on the moon, the Vietnam War, Watergate, and the Iranian hostage crisis.

Walter Cronkite, right, interviews Egyptian President Anwar Sadat on the "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite," Sept. 19, 1978. The interview led to a Sadat visit to Israel and a peace treaty between the countries 10 months later.

Walter Cronkite poses with his Emmy at the 31st Emmy Awards Sept. 9, 1979, in Los Angeles. In 1985, he was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame. Cronkite won four Peabody awards for excellence in broadcasting over his career and won virtually every electronic journalism award in existence during his tenure.

Walter Cronkite listens to Cuban President Fidel Castro during an interview on Feb. 14, 1980.

Walter Cronkite anchors CBS News Election 1980 coverage. Seated from left are Dan Rather, Leslie Stahl, center, and Cronkite.

On Nov. 4, 1980, his 64th birthday, Walter Cronkite anchored his last CBS Election Night special. Here he reports the results of the 1980 U.S. Presidential election, in which Ronald Reagan defeated President Jimmy Carter. He stepped down as anchor of the "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite" four months later, on March 6, 1981.

Walter Cronkite talks on the phone in his office on his last day as the anchor of the "CBS Evening News," in New York, March 6, 1981. Behind his desk is an Emmy Award and a drawing of Mickey Mouse watching Cronkite make his final announcement as anchor: "And that's the way it is!"

Walter Cronkite and his wife, Betsy, pose shortly after leaving a reception at New York's City Hall, in honor of the CBS anchorman who was concluding his final day at the "CBS Evening News" on March 7, 1981. The couple married in 1940 and had three children, Nancy, Mary Kathleen and Walter Leland III. Betsy died in 2005.

Walter Cronkite the premier TV anchorman of the networks' golden age who reported a tumultuous time with reassuring authority and came to be called "the most trusted man in America," died Friday, July 17, 2009. He was 92.

A smiling Walter Cronkite on Dec. 20, 1988. During the 1980s, Cronkite served as a special correspondent and hosted several acclaimed CBS documentaries.