Legendary CBS newscaster Walter Cronkite, who many referred to as "Uncle Walt," has passed away, CBS News reports. He was 92 years old. CBS vice president Linda Mason says Cronkite passed away on Friday evening, surrounded by family in his New York home. His cause of death was cerebral vascular disease, his former chief of staff Marlene Adler tells the Associated Press. As the CBS anchorman for almost 20 years, Cronkite's dependability and everyman demeanor comforted audiences through such lows as the President Kennedy assassination and cheered them in such highs as America landing on the moon. Cronkite was born in 1916 in St. Joseph, MO but grew up in Houston, TX. He wrote for his high school newspaper and became the campus correspondent for the Houston Post when he was a student at the University of Texas. He dropped out of college but continued working for the Post until he moved to Kansas City in 1936 to become a radio announcer for KCMO. In 1937 he was hired by United Press International to cover World War II. As Brussels Bureau Chief, he traveled with troops to North Africa to the D-Day landing and even parachuted into Holland with the 101st Airborne Division. During his nine-year stay at UPI he also covered the Nuremberg Trials and became their Moscow Bureau Chief. In 1948 he returned to the U.S. and was a radio broadcaster out of Washington D.C. until CBS hired Cronkite in 1950 as a correspondent. Throughout the '50s he hosted many of the network's shows, including "CBS News: Up to the Minute," "The Week in Review," "You are There," "It's News to Me" and his most popular "The 20th Century" (later retitled "The 21st Century") which ran from 1957 - 1970. In 1962 when CBS anchorman Douglas Edwards was let go for doing a television commercial, Cronkite was already a household name when he was asked to take over the nightly 15-minute news program. One of Cronkite's first big interviews was in September of 1963 with President John F. Kennedy and less than three months later the anchorman's announcement to the world that J.F.K. had been assassinated would go down in history as one of the most recognized moments of the shocking tragedy. Cronkite continued anchoring through the ‘60s and '70s giving the world its news during one of the most eventful times of U.S. history. He covered everything from the grim Vietnam war to the scandalous Watergate crisis to America landing on the moon - and enthusiastically reporting - "Boy! There they sit on the moon! Just exactly nominal wasn't it? ... On green with the flight plan, all the way down. Man finally is standing on the surface of the moon! My golly!" To make room on the anchordesk for the young and eager CBS reporter Dan Rather, in 1981, after seven Emmys and 19 years as the CBS nightly anchor, Cronkite signed off for the last time with his trademark send-off "And that's the way it is." Cronkite continued working for CBS. He became a member of the board of directors and also stayed on as a special correspondent. He hosted many specials including "We the People 200: The Constitutional Gala" and "Walter Cronkite at Large." In his spare time, Cronkite was an avid sailor and wrote several books, including 1997's A Reporter's Life. His wife Mary Elizabeth Maxwell, known as Betsy, passed away in 2005. He is survived by his three children Nancy, Mary and Walter.

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