A Life on the Road

Charles Kuralt, September 10, 1934 - July 3, 1997 Charles Kuralt was born on September 10, 1934 in Wilmington, North Carolina. He was the son of a social worker and a teacher. Kuralt attended the University of North Carolina where he edited the student newspaper. He graduated in 1955. A year later, Kuralt won the Ernie Pyle Memorial Award for his human interest columns while working for the Charlotte, North Carolina News.

Kuralt joined CBS in 1957 as a rewriter, moving quickly up the ranks to become an on-air correspondent, where he covered the 1960 Presidential campaign. He then moved to the position of head of CBS' Latin American Bureau. He eventually became a roving correspondent, doing four tours of Vietnam, covering the war. Kuralt quit hard news in 1967 and gathered a three man crew to do a three month trial run of "On the Road." After logging more than a million miles for CBS Americana, Kuralt became the anchor of "Sunday Morning," and hosted "An American Moment," and "I Remember."

Through the course of his career, Charles Kuralt won three Peabody Awards and ten Emmys. He received the 1981 George Polk Memorial Award for national television reporting and was named Broadcaster of the Year in 1985 by the International Radio- Television Society.

He has written "To the Top of the World," "Dateline America," "On the Road with Charles Kuralt," "Southerners," "North Carolina Is My Home" and "A Life on the Road." Charles Kuralt died on July 3, 1997 at the age of 63.

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