Mrs. Cronkite

Walter Cronkite had a wife. She died this week. Funny, I don't think I ever once thought of Walter Cronkite as having a family. Her obit reveals an interesting life that came and went without much of the notoriety that surrounded her husband.

Walter Cronkite met his future wife, born Mary Elizabeth Maxwell, while
they were both working at radio station KCMO in Kansas City, Missouri. They
married in 1940, and shortly afterward she became women's editor of the Kansas
City Journal-Post.

While her husband was overseas reporting for United Press during much
of World War II, she worked for Hallmark, publishing a company newspaper that
also was distributed to members of the armed forces, Sukman said.

At the end of the war, she joined her husband in Brussels, Belgium, and
later accompanied him to Moscow, where he worked for two years as chief
correspondent for UP. The couple eventually moved to New York. He joined CBS in
1950.

I often wish obituaries in the newspaper were longer and more detailed. Seriously. Everyone's life is interesting if presented correctly. We should be able to call the newspaper when a close relative dies and an obituary beat reporter should come out an cover it like a real story.

I know, that's probably not profitable for the paper since not everyone is as fascinated with other people's stories. My dream job would be working on biographies all day. Back before it was so Hollywood celebrity driven, doing research for A&E's Biography series would have been just about right.