Jennings (1938-2005)

Not just a news reader, Canadian-born Peter Jennings, stood out as one of the most distinguished broadcast journalists in the United States. Last Sunday, he succumbed to lung cancer and died at home in New York. He was 67.

Jennings had been a prominent figure on the ABC News Network, where he anchored “Peter Jennings with the News” from 1965 to 1967, making him the youngest anchor in television history at that time. He also became ABC News’s bureau chief for Beirut, Lebanon, in 1968, a position he held for seven years.

His broadcasting career reached its peak in 1983, when he was named senior editor and sole anchor of the evening newscast “World News Tonight.” In his more than 20 years on the program, he reaped several major awards for news reporting.

He was ABC News’s principal anchor for breaking news, election coverage, and special events. Among the many key events that he reported were the September 11, 2001 attacks and the subsequent wars waged by the US against Iraq.

Jennings was part of a triumvirate, with NBC’s Tom Brokaw and CBS’s Dan Rather, that dominated network news for more than two decades.

A high school dropout, Jennings worked as a bank teller for several years before moving into radio and then television in 1961, according to a CNN report.

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