Bill Lawrence (news personality)

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Bill Lawrence
Howard K. Smith and Bill Lawrence 1968
Howard K. Smith and Bill Lawrence (right) during ABC's coverage of the 1968 presidential election
Born
William H. Lawrence

(1916-01-29)January 29, 1916
Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S.
DiedMarch 2, 1972(1972-03-02) (aged 56)
Bedford, New Hampshire, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Newspaper reporter and television news personality
Years active1932–1972
Spouses
  • Elizabeth Currie
  • Constance MacGregor
ChildrenWilliam Lawrence
Ann Lawrence
Awards
Peabody Award
(1965)

William H. Lawrence (January 29, 1916 – March 2, 1972) was an American journalist and television news personality whose 40-year career as a reporter began in 1932 and included a 20-year stint (1941–61) with

anchorman.[1]

Background

A native

University of Nebraska
.

Career

Lawrence dropped out of college to join hometown newspaper the

Lincoln Star
as a 17-year-old cub reporter.

Newswires

In 1935, at the age of 19, he moved to the

Flint Sit-Down Strike against General Motors and, having won plaudits for his reporting, was reassigned to Washington
.

New York Times

At the beginning of 1941,

Okinawa, Guam, Japan and Moscow, where he was assigned as a war correspondent in 1943 and, during the immediate postwar period, continued to file stories from such diverse locations as Poland, the Balkans and South America.[3] In January 1944, he was part of the delegation of Western correspondents who visited the graves in Katyn forest at the invitation of the Soviets.[4]
On September 13, 1945, Lawrence published a leading article in The New York Times with an all-capitals headline that read: "NO RADIOACTIVITY IN HIROSHIMA; WHAT OUR SUPERFORTRESSES DID TO A JAPANESE PLANE PRODUCTION CENTER. Between 1950 and 1953, he spent months in Korea covering the war and interviewing soldiers in a series of personal human interest articles which appeared in The Times.

In 1959 he served as president of the

National Press Club and appeared in an episode of the United States Army television documentary series The Big Picture where he was first shown in a film clip introducing General Maxwell D. Taylor who, in June, made a speech to the club on the occasion of his retirement as Army Chief of Staff.[5] In the following segment, The Big Picture host, Master Sergeant Stuart Queen, asked Lawrence to recount his Korean War experiences from nine years earlier, during the September 1950 Battle of Inchon and Second Battle of Seoul, as well as the individual and private face of war that he saw by remaining alongside the common fighting man.[6] By 1959, as in the two preceding years, the great majority of Lawrence's efforts were devoted to the Washington political scene, with almost all of the stories appearing on the front page, including the final one he wrote for The Times, datelined May 26, 1961.[7]

ABC News

In May 1961,

ABC's evening news, Lawrence, on September 25, joined newscaster Al Mann and former NBC anchorman John Cameron Swayze in a new three-anchor team to replace Bill Shadel who had been serving as the ABC Evening Report anchorman since Daly's November 16, 1960 resignation, and final broadcast on December 16, after seven years in the post.[8] The anchor team, however, proved unsuccessful, and, following their last broadcast six months later, on March 22, 1962, ABC returned to the single-anchorman concept with Ron Cochran at the helm of ABC Evening Report until his replacement by 26-year-old Canadian Peter Jennings
on February 1, 1965.

In the aftermath of his brief stint as co-anchor, Bill Lawrence, as he was exclusively known at ABC, became preoccupied with his duties as the news department's political editor and, in the days following the

Lyndon B. Johnson made his "I shall not seek and will not accept my party's nomination" speech of March 31, 1968, he was the sole major news analyst to predict that the president would not run.[2]

In 1968 Lawrence was diagnosed with

1970 midterm elections, he served as national affairs editor alongside anchors Howard K. Smith and Frank Reynolds.[12]

In March 1971, with the following year's presidential elections looming on the horizon, Lawrence requested a reduced workload, with a partial leave of absence, to finish his autobiography. While fulfilling occasional major assignments, such as a rare primetime interview with

presidential primary race between early favorite, Senator Edmund Muskie and his strong challenger, Senator George McGovern
.

Five weeks earlier, around the time of his 56th birthday on January 29, Lawrence and ABC Evening News co-anchor,

African-American political figure who, while serving as President pro tempore of the Senate
, suddenly succeeds to the Presidency, the two top national newscasters play fictional versions of themselves in brief segments which show them delivering the news of and discussing the world-shaking event. The film ultimately opened in July, four-and-a-half months after Lawrence's death.

Personal life and death

Bill Lawrence and his first wife, Elizabeth Currie, were the parents of two children, William and Ann. Following divorce, he married Constance MacGregor, with that marriage also ending in divorce. The autobiography, Six Presidents, Too Many Wars, which recounted his coverage of the administrations of Presidents

Gerald W. Johnson, noted that "Bill was recalcitrant. Popular idols were not his dish. His book, in fact, is tonic at a moment when the impression is widespread that conformity is the curse of the writing classes."[14]

On March 2, 1972, five days before the vote, he suffered a

heart attack at the Wayfarer Motor Inn in Bedford, a suburb of the state's largest city, Manchester, and was dead on arrival at Manchester's Notre Dame Hospital.[15]

Awards

  • 1965:
    Peabody Award
  • 1972: Trustees Award at the 1972 Emmy Awards (posthumous)

References

  1. ^ "Britons and 'Family' Major Emmy Winners" (Kentucky New Era, May 15, 1972)
  2. ^ a b "William H. Lawrence, 56, Dies; National Editor of A. B. C. News; Specialist in Political Affairs Joined Network After 20 Years With Times" (The New York Times, March 3, 1972)
  3. ^ "W.H. Lawrence Joins A.B.C. News Bureau" (The New York Times, May 30, 1961)
  4. ^ Urban, Thomas: The Katyn Massacre 1940. History of a Crime. Barnsley 2020, p. 126.
  5. ^ Edson, Peter. "Washington Notebook: Retiring General Taylor Still Has Some Missions" (The Victoria Advocate, July 5, 1959)
  6. ^ Master Sergeant Stuart Queen, host of 1950s television documentary series, The Big Picture, interviews Bill Lawrence about his coverage of the Korean War
  7. ^ Lawrence, W. H. "KENNEDY ASKS 1.8 BILLION THIS YEAR TO ACCELERATE SPACE EXPLORATION, ADD FOREIGN AID, BOLSTER DEFENSE; MOON TRIP URGED He Assures Congress Nation Is Ready to Take On Burden President Asks 1.8 Billion This Year to Push Space Tasks, Foreign Aid and Arms MOON TRIP URGED AS A MAJOR GOAL Kennedy Tells Congressmen Nation Is Ready to Make Necessary Sacrifices" (front page banner headline—The New York Times, May 26, 1961)
  8. ^ "Daly Quits ABC Post; Hagerty Refuses Comment on Rumor He Will Get Job" (Reading Eagle, November 17, 1960)
  9. ^ "Interview Justice Black on Dec. 3 Broadcast" (Youngstown Vindicator, November 24, 1968)
  10. ^ "Bill Lawrence Collapses at Convention Hall" (The Morning Record, August 6, 1968)
  11. ^ "ABC Editor to Moderate Chamber's Annual Program" (St. Petersburg Times, September 25, 1970)
  12. ^ "If elections are horse races, why shouldn't watching them be just as exciting?" (The Miami News, November 3, 1970)
  13. ^ Gent, George. "BURGER TO APPEAR IN TV INTERVIEW; Will Talk With Lawrence of A.B.C. News July 5" (The New York Times, May 26, 1971)
  14. ^ Johnson, Gerald W. "Merriman Smith's Book of Presidents; A White House Memoir. Edited by Timothy G. Smith. Foreword by Robert J. Donovan. Illustrated. 250 pp. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. Six Presidents, Too Many Wars by Bill Lawrence. 307 pp. New York: Saturday Review Press" (The New York Sunday Times Book Review Section, October 1, 1972)
  15. ^ Bigelow, Hugh. "Newsman Bill Lawrence Dies Covering N.H. Vote" (The Boston Globe, March 3, 1972)

External links

Preceded by ABC Evening News
Al Mann and John Cameron Swayze

1961–1962 		Succeeded by
Media offices
Preceded by
John Edwards
 ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Succeeded by
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