Bill Lawrence

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William H. "Bill" 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) with The New York Times, for which he reported from major fronts of World War II, Korean War and, subsequently, as the newspaper's White House correspondent.

In 1961 he joined ABC News where, for nearly 11 years, he served as the network's political affairs editor and, during his first year, as an evening news anchorman.

The recipient of a 1965 Peabody Award, he was posthumously honored with the Trustees Award at the 1972 Emmy Awards.

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 Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon as well as of the combat in World War II, Korea and Vietnam in addition to myriad other international conflicts, was published shortly before the presidential election. In his October 1, 1972 review for The New York Times Sunday Book Section, critic Gerald 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 a heart attack at the Wayfarer Motor Inn in Bedford, a suburb of the state's largest city, Manchester, and was dead on arrival at Manchester's Notre Dame Hospital.

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Career

Lawrence left college to join the Lincoln Star as a 17-year-old cub reporter.

He went to the Associated Press in 1935 and then to the United Press, two years later. The 1936–37 Flint Sit-Down Strike against GM was the first big assignment he covered for UP, and he was recalled to Washington after receiving accolades for his reporting.

Arthur Krock, Washington bureau chief of The New York Times, was struck by his assertiveness in ferreting out rumors that Lawrence had been offered a job as one of the bureau's reporters at the start of 1941. "By William H. Lawrence," the 1940s byline, and "By W. Lawrence" appeared in 1950s, 1960s, and the Cold War, among other things covered World War II, the Korean War, and the Cold War. His warfront reporting took him to Okinawa, Guam, Japan, and Moscow, where he was stationed as a war correspondent in 1943 and continued to publish news from such diverse locations as Poland, the Balkans, and South America. He was a member of the delegation of Western correspondents who visited the graves in Katyn forest at the Soviet invitation of the Soviets in January 1944. In a series of personal human interest articles that appeared in The Times between 1950 and 1953, he spent months in Korea reporting the war and interviewing troops.

He served as President of the National Press Club in 1959 and appeared in a film clip introducing General Maxwell D. Taylor, who made a speech to the club on the occasion of his resignation as Army Chief of Staff in June. Lawrence is asked by Big Picture host Master Sergeant Stuart Queen to recount his Korean War experiences from nine years ago, as well as the individual and private aspects of war that occurred when remaining with the common combat man. Lawrence's efforts were concentrated to Washington, Washington, and the final one, which he wrote for The Times, were published on the front page in 1959, as in the previous two years.

Lawrence Hagerty, the former press secretary of the United States, and Dwight D. Eisenhower administration, filled John Daly's unfilled position as vice president in charge of ABC's low-rated news service starting in Lawrence's time as Lawrence's time as White House correspondent, a top-level position in the news department. He was on a European trip to cover President John F. Kennedy's first overseas visit as Chief Executive during his first assignment as ABC's chief news analyst. Since Hagerty did not take over Daly's other position, that of anchorman for ABC's evening news, Lawrence, on September 25, newscaster Al Mann and former NBC anchorman John Cameron Swayze joined a new three-anchor team to replace Bill Shadel, who had been covering the ABC Evening News anchorman since Daly's departure on November 16, 1960, and his final broadcast on December 16, 1960, after seven years in the role, he lasted six years in ad ABC Evening Report's anchor team, on the other hand, was ineffective, and ABC returned to the single-anchorman model with Ron Cochran as the head of ABC Evening Report until his replacement by 26-year-old Canadian Peter Jennings on February 1, 1965.

Bill Lawrence, the co-anchor of ABC's brief stint as co-anchor, became preoccupied with his editorial duties as the news department's political editor and national affairs editor for the days following the 1968 presidential election in the days after the November 1968 presidential election. The face of the network's national coverage, he regularly appeared or appeared on its Sunday morning news interview show, Issues and Answers, and was often visible during primaries, conventions, and polls, to the extent that his coverage of the 1964 presidential election earned him the Peabody Award for "Outstanding Reportorial Work." In 1966, almost two years before President Lyndon B. Johnson made his "I shall not seek and will not accept my party's nomination" address, he was the only major news analyst to predict that the president would not run.

Lawrence was diagnosed with pulmonary edema in 1968, which caused his lungs to fill with fluid and put a strain on his heart. He died at his desk immediately after one of the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, and his coworkers became aware of his condition. He was able to continue reporting during his remaining three-and-a-half years as a sports fan and even served as the commentator for ABC's coverage of the 1969 World Series. He served as both a skilled moderator of political discussions and traveled around the country in such a role. He served as national affairs editor alongside anchors Howard K. Smith and Frank Reynolds during ABC's coverage of the 1970 midterm elections.

Lawrence requested a reduced workload with a partial leave of absence in March 1971, despite the fact that the following year's presidential elections were looming, to finish his autobiography. While doing occasional major duties, including an exclusive interview with Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger on July 5, the senator did not return full-time until October, when ABC's senior reporter, Stephen Burke, discussed the primary election between early favorites Senator Edmund Muskie and his main challenger, Senator George McGovern, in New Hampshire.

Lawrence and ABC Evening News co-anchor Howard K. Smith shot a few scenes for The Man, the made-for-TV-but-released-to-theaters adaptation of Irving Wallace's best-selling 1964 eponymous book, The Man, five weeks before his 56th birthday on January 29, Lawrence and ABC Evening News co-anchor's five-week memoir, The Man. The two leading national newscasters portray fictional versions of themselves in this multi-plot tale about an African-American political figure who briefly served as President pro tempore of the Senate but then ascends to the Presidency. Lawrence died in July, four-and-a-half months after his death.

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Awards

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