Peter Jennings, Canadian reporter at ABC. died sunday august 7,2005

Peter Jennings, 67, died at his home in New York. Sunday August 7, 2005, from lung cancer.
Tributes were pouring in Monday for Peter Jennings, the Canadian-born anchor of ABC's flagship network news program, who died of lung cancer on Sunday.
The younger Jennings got an early start in broadcasting, at age nine, hosting a weekly half-hour CBC Radio kids' show called Peter's People. He spent time as a radio news reporter in Brockville, Ont., and got his first shot at network news anchoring at the age of 23 when he was hired by CTV to host its late-night national news.
"I think Peter brought a high quality of literature to electronic journalism," CTV News anchor Lloyd Robertson, who worked with Jennings in the early 1960s, told the Canadian Press.
Robertson called his former colleague "a class act" and "the best of the breed" among U.S. news anchors.
"He brought perspective to stories, he had poetry in his language and I thought a lot of that was due to his Canadian roots," Robertson said.
Jennings received many awards for news reporting over his career, including 14 national Emmys, two George Foster Peabody Awards and several Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards for excellence in broadcast journalism.
"Peter took his work very seriously but he did not take himself seriously," news colleague Dan Rather said Monday.
"He was very uncomfortable with the word 'star' and he was a little uncomfortable with the word 'anchor' because he really did think of himself as a reporter. He had the heart of a reporter and he had the will and the skill of a reporter. He died as he lived and reported, brave, principled, loving to his family."v
Jennings lived in Manhattan with his wife, Kayce Freed. He had two children.

Peter was born on July 29, 1938 in Toronto, Ontario. His father, Charles Jennings, was a big player with the CBC. At age 9 Peter was hosting a weekly half-hour radio show on CBC called Peter's Program. Peter attended the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, but dropped out and went to work at a radio station in Brockton. This lead to a spot as host of a CBC public-affairs program. A high profile story brought the attention of the CTV, where in 1962 he became a co-anchor of Canada's first national commercial network newscast.

Former ABC News President, Elmer Lower, discovered Jennings while he was a news co-anchor at the CTV. Lower saw the right package in Jennings, and hired the ambitious journalist for a short segment on the evening news in 1964. In 1965, Jennings made story by becoming the youngest news anchor on ABC Evening News. He may have had the looks and charisma to be a television journalist, but his youth and inexperience made him a less credible source of information, especially with competition like Walter Cronkite on CBS. Due to 3 years of poor ratings, Jennings was shelved and placed as a foreign correspondent so that he could gain the necessary experience, and it was these crucial years that led to his success today.

Jennings was the ABC News Bureau Chief in Beirut, Lebanon, for 7 years, where he established the first American television news bureau in the Middle East. Aside from his work in the Middle East, which helped him earn the reputation of a quality reporter, Jennings also worked in Rome and London. His work on the international front gave him experience like no other -- he became a favorite of Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat (his documentary on the late President garnered him a Peabody Award in 1974), and had the honor of being the first American reporter to interview the Ayatollah.

Jennings' straightforward and incomparable news delivery has garnered him many awards, including more than 12 Emmys, several Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Awards, numerous Overseas Press Club Awards, Harvard University's Goldsmith Career Award for excellence in journalism, the Radio and Television News Directors Paul White Award (as chosen by the news directors of the 3 major networks), and the Washington Journalism Review for the country's best anchor (in the 5 years that they gave the award). Jennings was also honored by the Boston Globe in 1995, which noted that Edward R. Murrow had passed the torch to Peter Jennings.

Peter has been married 4 times, his reputation as a charmer dates back to the '60s when the charismatic Jennings was already a TV celebrity. Peter even dated Barbra Streisand in the mid 1990s. Along with a colorful career, Jennings has had an equally varied personal life, thanks in part to his alleged womanizing ways. Jennings was formerly married to Valerie Godsoe, followed by Annie Malouf, and his wife of 14 years, Kati Morton (with whom he has 2 children, Elizabeth and Christopher). He is presently married to Kaycee Freed.

Not many of the millions of Americans who watch him every night is aware that he is Canadian, and has never bothered to obtain American citizenship. He maintains that his Canadian passport, and not his place within ABC, has gotten him out of more tight spots in the Middle East than he would care to count.

Since july 2003, Peter Jennings is now an American citizen.

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