Mari..... This is for you. I thought you might like this. Take care.
Peers Pay Tribute to Peter Jennings
Wed Sep 21, 7:00 AM
After a lifetime of reporting the news, Peter Jennings became the story Tuesday, as a who's-who of telejournalists turned out at New York's Carnegie Hall to memorialize the late ABC News anchor.
Jennings, who died of lung cancer on Aug. 7 at the age of 67, had been the last of the big three broadcast network anchors following the recent retirements of rivals Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather.
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E! Online's fact sheet for Peter Jennings
E! Online There were also dozens of news vets from rival networks, including Rather, Walter Cronkite, Brian Williams, Katie Couric, Matt Lauer, Mike Wallace, Larry King, Andy Rooney, Bob Schieffer, Christiane Amanpour, Judy Woodruff and even fake newsman Jon Stewart. Also filling the seats: Alan Alda, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Mayor Rudi Giuliani, Tom Wolfe, Al Sharpton and Robert Iger, president of the Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC.
Jennings was recalled as not only a tenacious journalist who anchored ABC News for more 20 years, but also as a devoted family man, avid music lover and a loyal citizen to both his native Canada and adopted U.S. (Jennings was said to carry a copy of the U.S. Constitution with him wherever he went).
"An anchor is what keeps a ship from drifting into dangerous waters," ABC News President David Westin told the audience. "It keeps us steady and secure during the night, and that's what Peter was to ABC News."
Nightline anchor Ted Koppel drew laughs throughout his remarks when he recounted how at the beginning of their four-decade friendship, he was known as "the smart one" while Jennings was "the handsome anchor." Within a few years, Koppel said, Jennings "was both the handsome one and the smart one."
"I felt a thrill whenever I saw him," Koppel said. "Not many people had that genuine charisma, that sort of animal magnetism that makes it difficult to focus on anyone else in the room.
"Peter was famously, at times notoriously attractive to women. Even so, he only married four of them," Koppel continued, amid chuckles.
Recalling his friend towards the end, Koppel said: "Even in his last days, he still filled a room."
The service included performances by Wynton Marsalis and Yo Yo Ma. Bagpipers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police played as pictures of Jennings with friends and family flashed above the ornate stage.
Reflecting how much Jennings will be sorely missed by ABC News staffers, World News Tonight producer Tom Nagorski said that employees now sport plastic blue bracelets asking "What would Peter do?"
Alda, menawhile, praised Jennings' inimitable style as well as his impact on the millions of Americans who watched him every night. "We're left now with just a little bit of snow at the bottom of the screen," said the actor, adding that Jennings was a "truly authentic person."
Mary Brosnahan Sullivan, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, spoke of how Jennings often delivering meals to the homeless after getting off work at World News Tonight. "The Peter I knew was somebody of concrete action," she said.
Jennings' two children, Chris and Elizabeth, were the last to speak during the nearly two-hour program.
"There is no way to express how much I miss my father," his son said. "Each day is, above all else, a day without him."
