Mary Elizabeth “Betsy” Cronkite, the wife of former CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite, has died, the newsman’s assistant said Wednesday. She was 89.

She died of complications of cancer Tuesday night at the couple’s Manhattan apartment, said the assistant, Julie Sukman.

Walter Cronkite met his future wife, born Mary Elizabeth Maxwell, while they were both working at radio station KCMO in Kansas City, Missouri. They married in 1940, and shortly afterward she became women’s editor of the Kansas City Journal-Post.

Rest In Peace, Betsy.

1. I worked for Walter for a few I worked for Walter for a few years during the late 1980s. As his assistant, I had to interact with Betsy and she was a delightful woman. Grounded, down-to-earth, with no o’erweening ego to deal with. Her family adored her, and rightly so.

   Walter often told me that Betsy kept him from getting too inflated with his own ego and he loved her for that.

   I think she would have been just as happy with a quiet life away from the fame and attention. But Walter was who he was and she supported him, aided him and gave him the anchorage a famous person needs.

   Rest in peace, Betsy. Thank you for all your kindnesses to me.

   Comment by Nora B. on Dec 3rd, 2006 @ 02:05

   
   

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