Walter Cronkite - Early Life

Early Life

Cronkite was born in Saint Joseph, Missouri, the son of Helen Lena (née Fritsche, August 1892 – November 1993), and Dr. Walter Leland Cronkite (September 1893 – May 1973), a dentist. He had remote Dutch ancestry on his father's side, the family surname originally being Krankheyt.

Cronkite lived in Kansas City, Missouri, until he was ten, when his family moved to Houston, Texas. He attended junior high school at Lanier Junior High School (now Lanier Middle School) and high school at San Jacinto High School, where he edited the high school newspaper. He was a member of the Boy Scouts. He attended college at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), entering in the Fall term of 1933, where he worked on the Daily Texan and became a member of the Nu chapter of the Chi Phi Fraternity. He also was a member of the Houston chapter of DeMolay, a Masonic fraternal organization for boys. While attending UT, Cronkite had his first taste of performance, appearing in a play with fellow students Eli Wallach and Ann Sheridan.