Richard Threlkeld
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Richard Threlkeld (November 30, 1937 – January 13, 2012) was an American
television news News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or telev ...
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 a degree in history and political science from Ripon College. He then earned a master's degree from
Medill School of Journalism The Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications is a constituent school of Northwestern University that offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. It frequently ranks as the top school of journalism in the Unite ...
at
Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...
.


Career

Threlkeld held positions at
WHAS-TV WHAS-TV (channel 11) is a television station in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on West Chestnut Street in Downtown Louisville, and its transmitter is located in ru ...
in
Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
, and WMT-TV in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He joined CBS News in 1966 and served as a war correspondent in Vietnam in 1970. Threlkeld stayed with CBS until December 1981, serving as co-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 ...
'' (with Lesley Stahl) from 1977 to 1979. He covered
John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
's visit to Mexico in 1979. Threlkeld went to
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 ...
in 1982 and was given the special assignment of filing a weekly ''Status Report'' segment for World News Tonight, which sought to give a deeper perspective to the week's most important story. In that role, he reported on the Falklands War, the invasion of Lebanon and many other domestic and international issues. ''Status Reports'' won a DuPont-Columbia Award in 1983. After seven years at ABC, Threlkeld returned to CBS in 1989 and remained there until his retirement in 1999. During his news career, Threlkeld also covered the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
, the
Persian Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...
, and the
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...
. In the United States he covered such stories as the Robert F. Kennedy assassination and the Patty Hearst kidnapping, as well as numerous political campaigns. Threlkeld's last assignment before retirement was as CBS News
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 ...
correspondent. Threlkeld authored the book ''Dispatches from the Former Evil Empire'' in 2001.


Personal life

His wife, Betsy Aaron, was
CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
Moscow correspondent at the same time. He and his wife retired to
Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...
.


Death

Threlkeld was killed in an automobile accident on January 13, 2012, in Amagansett, New York. His 2008
Mini The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...
convertible collided with a propane truck. He was 74.


References


External links


Medill at Northwestern Hall of Achievement (Richard Threlkeld)Threlkeld reporting from Vietnam in 1970
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Threlkeld, Richard 1937 births 2012 deaths American television news anchors American television reporters and correspondents American war correspondents American war correspondents of the Vietnam War American male journalists Journalists from Iowa ABC News CBS News people Writers about the Soviet Union People from Barrington, Illinois Writers from Cedar Rapids, Iowa Ripon College (Wisconsin) alumni Medill School of Journalism alumni Road incident deaths in New York (state) 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American writers