Walter Cronkite's visit to Anna From the Anna News by Martha Ann Webb

A special thanks to Don Michel for telling us who Walter Cronkite was coming to Anna to see in 1936.

Don Michel interviewed Walter Cronkite for his WRAJ “Insight” program when he came to Carbondale to interview Buckminster Fuller on Oct.18, 1966.

Moneada Karraker was Don’s WRAJ bookkeeper at the time and had told Don that Walter used to go with an Anna girl. Don asked Walter about it and he said “I thought everybody had forgotten about that” and later in the interview volunteered that he was on his way from Houston to Anna to see the girl (Bit Winters, daughter of Mrs. Cann Dillow) when “she up and got married on me." Quote from Walter.Don later sought out Cann Dillow, who by then had moved to Dongola and she let him borrow overnight Bit’s scrapbook, which contained several telegrams from Walter, addressed to Bit Winter at 100 Monroe St. Anna, Ill. From the telegrams it was very clear that Walter and Bit were sweethearts.Don learned from Moneada that Bit was killed in an auto accident less than a year after her marriage.

Thanks to Don for sharing photos done at the time of his Cronkite interview in 1966 and another photo taken by an SIU photographer when Walter came back to Carbondale in 2003 in conjunction with the publication of his book “A Reporter’s Life”. In the book he mentioned his trip to Anna.

<strong>Insight programs</strong>

Tapes of the 507 “Insight” programs Don Michel did on WRAJ over a period of 12 years ending in 1977 will be loaned by Don to the Special Collections Center at SIU’s Morris Library next month and eventually will be made available for interested persons to hear through that library.