On the News - an Empty ManWhen Peter Jennings announced that he was ill with lung cancer, I figured that it had to be worse than he made it out to be on the air. He announced that he would return when his situation improved, and I figured also that it might not.
He did not improve, did not return to ABC, and died yesterday.
I've been watching that guy practically every weekday evening for the better part of my life. I didn't just single out his coverage of 9/11, like a lot of the news pieces which I have read observing his passing, but his whole 23 years of anchoring. Some folks remarked how grave he was during 9/11, but Jennings remained composed, even though his mood may have been grim. 9/11 was not "Happy-talk" news. No one seems to remember how freaked out his predecessor, Frank Reynolds, got with the assassination attempt on Reagan. "We have a report here that the President is wounded and in the hospital, and here is one that says he's dead...say! Can't anyone around here NAIL THIS DOWN???" Jennings would never have embarassed his colleagues with this kind of rhetoric on air, even in the midst of a crisis like 9/11.
Jennings, in a way, may have viewed himself as a casualty of 9/11. He resumed his long-abandoned habit of cigarette smoking during the crisis, and somehow smoked the one that we all hear about - that one cigarette that gave him cancer.
I am incredibly sad about his passing. Not only will I miss his coverage and cheerful demeanor, it makes me wonder how long
I've got.
Today I have a heavy heart. My little girl went off to Cincinnati to spend two weeks with Grandma as part of her summer vacation. I will miss her. In spite of the way I felt, this evening I finished and sent in what I hope to be the final draft of the Auto Glamour Sound liner notes.
And I just found a part of the lost BPA "Pizza Parlor" show from Wright State University! So maybe things are looking up. Life marches on!
Perhaps death always has the final triumph, but as long as one is alive and working, anything is possible. Glad just to be here, especially after some of the places I've seen. We'll not get into that.
Uncle Dave Lewis