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Ed Bradley, `60 Minutes' Correspondent, Dies at 65
By Nancy Kercheval
Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Ed Bradley, an elementary school teacher and pioneering black reporter who rose to the heights of American broadcast journalism on CBS's ``60 Minutes,'' died today. He was 65.
Bradley died of leukemia at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, CBS News said. Bradley's problems with his heart were well-known as he underwent bypass surgery in 2003. Bradley kept his bout with leukemia a secret.
He made his mark as a reporter covering Cambodian refugees during the Vietnam War. As a long-time correspondent for CBS's ``60 Minutes,'' Bradley's memorable interviews included talks with former boxer Muhammad Ali and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
``Bradley was just a damn good reporter,'' fellow ``60 Minutes'' correspondent Mike Wallace said in an interview on CNN.
Bradley, who wore an earring in his left ear, began working on the news program in 1981, winning 19 Emmy awards during his 26 years there. His last story was broadcast Oct. 29 when he covered a woman's lawsuit against BP Plc over the deaths of her parents at a company refinery in Texas City, Texas. Hours after his death today, BP said it reached an undisclosed settlement.
`Very Private Person'
The National Association of Black Journalists gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award. Bryan Monroe, president of the group and vice president and editor of Ebony, said he met Bradley in 1989 and remembers his love of jazz.
``Just like a jazz musician, he was open to improvisation,'' Monroe said ``He'd go where the story took him.''
Colleagues and peers were surprised by Bradley's death, as many didn't know he was ill.
``Ed was a very, very private person,'' said Sean McManus, president of CBS News. ``He didn't share the details of what he was going through. The last thing Ed ever wanted to do was talk about his problems.''
Former CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite said he was unaware his friend was so ill.
``I've lost a real close friend and one I admire so greatly in his personality and his preparation and broadcasting and his talent as an interviewer,'' Cronkite said. ``This was the final step in proving his ability to hide the uncomfortable from his friends while he suffered pangs of pain.''
Radio Work
Bradley was born on June 22, 1941, in Philadelphia and graduated from Cheyney State College in 1964 with a B.S. in education. While teaching at a sixth-grade elementary school teacher, he also moonlighted as a disc jockey earning $1.50 an hour and later hosted the radio show, ``Jazz at Lincoln Center,'' said Bruce Gordon, president and chief executive officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
When the Jazz at Lincoln Center radio program was going to be discontinued because it was costing too much money, Bradley made a donation and challenged the other board members to follow his lead, said Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Wynton Marsalis in an interview. Bradley was scheduled to host the center's Nov. 13 fall gala ``Manhattan Rhapsody: A Celebration of George Gershwin.''
``I loved him,'' said Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz. ``We lost somebody in him. He believed in the thing (arts and Lincoln Center).''
Jazz
Hughlyn Fierce, a Jazz at Lincoln Center board member along with Bradley, remembered the journalist as a ``cultured'' man who collected African-American art, fine wines and wore an earring -- although some criticized the accessory.
``I travel to France, and I could walk into the room and Ed was one of the few guys who could tell me where I got the handkerchiefs that fit into my breast pocket,'' said Fierce, a retired Chase Manhattan Bank senior vice president, in a phone interview today. ``He was warm, charming, gracious, savvy and an intellectual.''
His first radio news job was with WDAS Radio in 1963, covering former civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and the riots in Philadelphia.
Bradley's interviews were marked by his distinctive, authoritative voice, intense glare and style, Gordon said. ``He got the stories no one else could get and he covered those stories the way no one else could cover them.''
`Set the Bar'
He was a reporter for WCBS Radio, the CBS-owned radio in New York before joining CBS News.
``He was a man among men and it never went to his head,'' Don Hewitt, former ``60 Minutes'' executive producer, said on CNN.
Roland Martin, executive editor and general manager of Real Times Inc.'s Chicago Defender, met Bradley in 1989 in New York.
``Many of us are stunned by his death at the age of 65 but he leaves an impressive body of work that all of us can reflect on,'' Martin said.
Dori Maynard, president and chief executive officer of Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, said Bradley was a friend of the family and the first contributor to the institute's oral history project on ``The Black Journalists Movement: How They Got Their Start.''
``He set the bar of excellence on how you should project yourself,'' Maynard said. ``He was not just an excellent journalist; he was a bicultural journalist.''
Lena Horne, George Burns
U.S. Representative Melvin Watt, a North Carolina Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Bradley set ``an exceptional standard'' for journalists.
``During his extraordinary career, Mr. Bradley was one of broadcast journalism's luminaries who worked on an incredible array of stories after joining the CBS news magazine in 1981.''
Bradley joined journalists such as Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, and Peter Jennings when he was given the 2000 Paul White Award by the Radio/Television News Directors Association.
``Whether it's the Lena Horne story he did or George Burns or Timothy McVeigh -- which just tore your heart out -- or the boat people in Cambodia where Ed, not the journalist but the human being, started helping people up on dry land, it's hard to think anybody could duplicate that,'' McManus said, adding Bradley was a New York Knicks fan.
Bradley is survived by his wife, Patricia Blanchet, of New York. He married Blanchet, an artist, in 2004 at their Aspen, Colorado, home with Jimmy Buffett providing the wedding music, according to a column in the Rocky Mountain News.
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11-10-2006 05:17 AM
