Aug. 7 — ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings died today at his home in New York City. He was 67. On April 5, Jennings announced he had been diagnosed with lung cancer.
He is survived by his wife, Kayce Freed, his two children, Elizabeth, 25, and Christopher, 23, and his sister, Sarah Jennings.
“Peter died with his family around him, without pain and in peace. He knew he’d lived a good life,” his wife and children said in a statement.
In announcing Jennings’ death to his ABC colleagues, News President David Westin wrote:
“For four decades, Peter has been our colleague, our friend, and our leader in so many ways. None of us will be the same without him.
“As you all know, Peter learned only this spring that the health problem he’d been struggling with was lung cancer. With Kayce, he moved straight into an aggressive chemotherapy treatment. He knew that it was an uphill struggle. But he faced it with realism, courage, and a firm hope that he would be one of the fortunate ones. In the end, he was not.
“We will have many opportunities in the coming hours and days to remember Peter for all that he meant to us all. It cannot be overstated or captured in words alone. But for the moment, the finest tribute we can give is to continue to do the work he loved so much and inspired us to do.”
(I might relentlessly bash ‘Big Media’, but I still had respect for the ‘old guard’ that did their best – politics aside – to make Murrow proud, and push past the corporate gatekeeping to get as much of the ‘truth’ out to the people as possible. Godspeed, Peter…)