Bill Lawrence (news personality)

Bill Lawrence
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.
Died	March 2, 1972(1972-03-02)(aged 56) Bedford,New Hampshire,U.S.
Occupation(s)	Newspaper reporter and television news personality
Years active	1932–1972
Spouses	Elizabeth Currie Constance MacGregor
Children	William 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) withThe New York Times,for which he reported from major fronts ofWorld War II,Korean Warand, subsequently, as the newspaper'sWhite House correspondent.In 1961 he joinedABC Newswhere, for nearly 11 years, he served as the network's political affairs editor and, during his first year, as an evening newsanchorman.

Background

A nativeNebraskan,Lawrence was born in the state capital,Lincoln,and briefly attended the city'sUniversity of Nebraska.

Career

Lawrence dropped out of college to join hometown newspaper theLincoln Staras a 17-year-old cub reporter.

Newswires

In 1935, at the age of 19, he moved to theAssociated Pressand, two years later, to theUnited Press.The first major assignment he covered for UP was the 1936–37Flint Sit-Down StrikeagainstGeneral Motorsand, having won plaudits for his reporting, was reassigned toWashington.

New York Times

At the beginning of 1941,Arthur Krock,Washington bureau chief ofThe New York Times,was impressed so by his assertiveness in ferreting out news that he offered Lawrence a position as one of the bureau's reporters.In his twenty years withThe Times,the 1940s byline, "By William H. Lawrence" and, in the 1950s and 1960–61, "By W. H. Lawrence" appeared over coverage from World War II, theKorean Warand theCold War.His battlefront reporting took him toOkinawa,Guam,JapanandMoscow,where he was assigned as a war correspondent in 1943 and, during the immediate postwar period, continued to file stories from such diverse locations asPoland,theBalkansandSouth America.In January 1944, he was part of the delegation of Western correspondents who visited the graves inKatyn forestat the invitation of the Soviets.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 inThe Times.

In 1959 he served as president of theNational Press Cluband appeared in an episode of theUnited States Armytelevision documentary seriesThe Big Picturewhere he was first shown in a film clip introducing GeneralMaxwell D. Taylorwho, in June, made a speech to the club on the occasion of his retirement asArmy Chief of Staff.In the following segment,The Big Picturehost, Master Sergeant Stuart Queen, asked Lawrence to recount his Korean War experiences from nine years earlier, during the September 1950Battle of InchonandSecond Battle of Seoul,as well as the individual and private face of war that he saw by remaining alongside the common fighting man.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 forThe Times,datelined May 26, 1961.

ABC News

In May 1961,James Hagerty,who served asUnited States PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower'sPress Secretaryand, immediately upon the end of the Eisenhower administration, filledJohn Daly's vacated position as vice-president in charge ofABC's low-rated news operation, offered Lawrence, whom he knew well from Lawrence's time as White House correspondent, a top-level position at the news department. His first assignment as ABC's chief news analyst was to accompany Hagerty on a European trip to cover PresidentJohn F. Kennedy's first overseas visit as Chief Executive. Within the course of his first months with the network, since Hagerty would not take over Daly's other position, that of anchorman forABC's evening news,Lawrence, on September 25, joined newscaster Al Mann and formerNBCanchormanJohn Cameron Swayzein a new three-anchor team to replaceBill Shadelwho had been serving as theABC Evening Reportanchorman since Daly's November 16, 1960 resignation, and final broadcast on December 16, after seven years in the post.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 withRon Cochranat the helm ofABC Evening Reportuntil his replacement by 26-year-oldCanadianPeter Jenningson 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 theNovember 1968 presidential election,national affairs editor.The face of the network's political coverage, he frequently hosted or appeared on its Sunday morning news interview program,Issues and Answersand was continually visible during primaries, conventions and elections to the extent that his coverage of the1964 Presidential electionwon him thePeabody Awardfor "Outstanding Reportorial Work". In 1966, almost two years beforeUnited States PresidentLyndon B. Johnsonmade 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.

In 1968 Lawrence was diagnosed withpulmonary edema,which caused his lungs to fill with fluid and put a strain on his heart. His colleagues became aware of the condition when he collapsed at his desk immediately following one of the broadcasts from the1968 Republican National ConventioninMiami Beach.Quickly recovering, he was able to continue working during his remaining three-and-a-half years and, as a sports fan, also began covering some athletic events and even personally served as the commentator for ABC's coverage of the1969 World Series.He was also a skilled moderator of political debates and traveled around the country in such capacity.During ABC's coverage of the1970 midterm elections,he served as national affairs editor alongside anchorsHoward K. SmithandFrank Reynolds.

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 withSupreme CourtChief JusticeWarren Burgeron July 5,he did not return full-time until October, when a resumption of his busy schedule covering the presidential campaign continued through February 1972 and a trip toNew Hampshireas ABC's reporter detailing the crucialpresidential primaryrace between early favorite, SenatorEdmund Muskieand his strong challenger, SenatorGeorge McGovern.

Five weeks earlier, around the time of his 56th birthday on January 29, Lawrence andABC Evening Newsco-anchor,Howard K. Smith,filmed a few scenes forThe Man,themade-for-TV-but-released-to-theaters feature-film version ofIrving Wallace's bestselling 1964eponymousnovel,The Man.In this multi-plot story of anAfrican-Americanpolitical figure who, while serving asPresident 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 PresidentsRoosevelt,Truman,Eisenhower,Kennedy,JohnsonandNixonas well as of the combat inWorld War II,KoreaandVietnamin addition to myriad other international conflicts, was published shortly before the presidential election. In his October 1, 1972 review forThe New York Times Sunday Book Section,criticGerald 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."

On March 2, 1972, five days before the vote, he suffered aheart attackat the Wayfarer Motor Inn inBedford,a suburb of the state's largest city,Manchester,and was dead on arrival at Manchester's Notre Dame Hospital.

Awards

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

External links

• listed as William H. LawrenceatIMDb
• Bill Lawrence comments on Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy's speech at the Democratic National Convention.ABC Evening Newsfor Wednesday, August 21, 1968
• Bill Lawrence comments on speech by President Richard Nixon.ABC Evening Newsfor Wednesday, March 5, 1969
• Bill Lawrence comments on President Richard Nixon's Vietnam policy.ABC Evening Newsfor Monday, November 23, 1970
• Bill Lawrence reports on mounting criticism of President Richard Nixon's bombing of North Vietnam.ABC Evening Newsfor Wednesday, December 29, 1971
• ABC News anchorman Howard K. Smith reports on the death of his colleague, Bill Lawrence. Final segment onABC Evening Newsfor Friday, March 3, 1972
• CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite reports on the death of Bill Lawrence of ABC News. Final segment onCBS Evening Newsfor Friday, March 3, 1972
• Baker, Russell. "Another Species Extinct",The New York Times(September 21, 1996). More than fourteen years after his death,Timescolumnist Baker remembers William H. "Bill" Lawrence
• "THE HEMISPHERE: Red Harvest" (Timemagazine, in its January 13, 1947 issue, describes the article resulting from William (Bill) Lawrence's trip to Brazil as a reporter forThe New York Times)
• "THE PRESS: Roll Out the Carpet" (Timemagazine, in its February 23, 1948 issue, mentionsNew York Timesreporter William H. Lawrence's expulsion from Bulgaria for describing the country as "a one-party state today, her internal and foreign policies openly modeled on and wedded to the Soviet Union" )
• "Letters, Mar. 29, 1954" (letter toTimemagazine inquires about Senator Joseph McCarthy giving a playful, but painful, under-the-table kick to Bill Lawrence ofThe New York Times)
• "W.H. Lawrence Joins A.B.C. News Bureau",The New York Times(May 30, 1961)
• "Transcript of Johnson's Assessment in TV Interview of His First 100 Days in Office; President Declares Nation Must Realize That the U.S. Has 120 Foreign Policies".The New York Times(March 16, 1964). President Lyndon Johnson interviewed by CBS' Eric Sevareid, NBC's David Brinkley and ABC's Bill Lawrence
• "Nation: AGNEW DEMANDS EQUAL TIME" (Vice President Spiro Agnew mentions ABC's Bill Lawrence as a commentator who "challenged the President's abilities as a politician" (Timemagazine, November 21, 1969)
• 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)
• "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)
• 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 Warsby Bill Lawrence. 307 pp. New York: Saturday Review Press ".The New York Sunday Times Book Review Section(October 1, 1972)
• Lawrence, Bill (1972).Six Presidents, Too Many Wars.New York: Saturday Review Press.ISBN0-8415-0143-2/ISBN978-0-8415-0143-0
• Brooks, Tim(1987).The Complete Directory to Prime Time TV Stars 1946–Present,page 497. New York: Ballantine Books.ISBN0-345-32681-4