Hughes Day Rudd (September 14, 1921 in

Waco, Texas Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the st ...

– October 13, 1992 in

Toulouse, France Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

) was a television journalist and CBS News and

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

correspondent. Rudd was known for his folksy style, gravelly voice, and unimposing sense of humor, often ending his newscasts with human interest stories that sometimes made him break into a chuckle on camera.

Known life and career

College years and wartime Army service

Rudd attended the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

from 1938 to 1941 before enlisting in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Flying

Piper Cub The Piper J-3 Cub is an American light aircraft that was built between 1938 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. The aircraft has a simple, lightweight design which gives it good low-speed handling properties and short-field performance. The Cub is P ...

s as an artillery spotter pilot in Africa and Europe, Rudd earned a

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...

, six

Air Medal The Air Medal (AM) is a military decoration of the United States Armed Forces. It was created in 1942 and is awarded for single acts of heroism or meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight. Criteria The Air Medal was establish ...

s and a Silver Star.

News career

Print journalism beginnings

Following World War II, Rudd began his journalism career writing for several newspapers, including the '' Kansas City Star'', the ''

Minneapolis Tribune The ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolida ...

'' and the '' Rock Springs (Wyo.) Daily Rocket and Sunday Miner''.

Television news career

Rudd got his first position at CBS News as a writer through the influence of his friend

Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...

. Rudd reported from around the world, including tours as a correspondent in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

, and

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

. He was an anchor of the ''

CBS Morning News The ''CBS Morning News'' is an American early-morning news broadcast presented weekdays on the CBS television network. The program features late-breaking news stories, national weather forecasts and sports highlights. Since 2013, it has been anc ...

'' from 1973 to 1977 when the CBS morning news program was more of a news summary similar to the format of '' The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite''. At times, Rudd was paired with various other CBS anchors, including, briefly in 1973,

Sally Quinn Sally Sterling Quinn (born July 1, 1941) is an American author and journalist, who writes about religion for a blog at ''The Washington Post''. Early life Sally Quinn was born in Savannah, Georgia, to Lt. General William Wilson "Buffalo Bill" ...

, and later,

Bruce Morton Bruce Morton may refer to: * Bruce Morton (journalist) (1930–2014), American journalist and television news correspondent * Bruce Morton (mathematician) (1926–2012), Australian/New Zealand applied mathematician {{hndis, Morton, Bruce ...

and

Richard Threlkeld Richard Threlkeld (November 30, 1937 – January 13, 2012) was an American television news correspondent who spent 25 years with CBS News. Early life Threlkeld was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and grew up in Barrington, Illinois. He earned ...

, the latter two based in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. In the middle of 1979, Rudd was recruited to ABC News by

Roone Arledge Roone Pinckney Arledge Jr. (July 8, 1931 – December 5, 2002) was an American sports and news broadcasting executive who was president of ABC Sports from 1968 until 1986 and ABC News from 1977 until 1998, and a key part of the company's rise t ...

. Human-interest stories, especially humorous or touching show-ender stories, became his hallmark. One of his assignments was as announcer for ''

ABC's Wide World of Sports ''ABC's Wide World of Sports'' is an American sports anthology television program that aired on ABC from April 29, 1961 to January 3, 1998, primarily on Saturday afternoons. Hosted by Jim McKay, with a succession of co-hosts beginning in 198 ...

''.

Later years and death

Always a

Francophile A Francophile, also known as Gallophile, is a person who has a strong affinity towards any or all of the French language, French history, French culture and/or French people. That affinity may include France itself or its history, language, cuisin ...

, after his retirement from journalism in 1986, Rudd moved to Valence-d'Albigeois in the department of the Tarn in southwestern France with his wife, Ann. Rudd's book, ''My Escape From the C.I.A. and Other Improbable Events,'' a collection of quasi-autobiographical fiction, was published in 1976 by E. P. Dutton & Company. On October 13, 1992, Rudd died of an aneurysm at a hospital in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...

, at the age of 71. His remains were

cremated Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre i ...

, and as he was a

Army veteran, his ashes were buried at

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...

News honors

The journalism awards that Rudd won included a

George Foster Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

for his creative writing on the ''CBS Morning News'' in 1977.

References

External links

Arlington National Cemetery
* http://www.americanheritage.com/content/when-i-landed-war-was-over {{DEFAULTSORT:Rudd, Hughes 1921 births 1992 deaths People from Waco, Texas American expatriates in France American television news anchors United States Army personnel of World War II Burials at Arlington National Cemetery CBS News people United States Army soldiers Peabody Award winners Recipients of the Air Medal Recipients of the Silver Star People from Tarn (department) Deaths from aneurysm Journalists from Texas 20th-century American journalists American male journalists