Jim Lehrer, the longtime anchorman for PBS who appeared on the air for more than 30 years until his retirement in 2011, died Thursday at 85, the news organization announced. Lehner died “peacefully in his sleep,” according to PBS who made the announcement in a tweet.
Lehrer and his friend and longtime partner Robert MacNeil first worked together on the half-hour “Robert MacNeil Report,” which began on PBS in 1975, with Lehrer as Washington correspondent. The two had already made names for themselves at the network through their work with the National Public Affairs Center for Television and its coverage of the Watergate hearings in 1973. The nightly news broadcast, later retitled the “MacNeil-Lehrer Report,” became the nation’s first one-hour TV news broadcast in 1983 and was then known as the “MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour.” After MacNeil bowed out in 1995, it became “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.”
Lehrer is survived by his wife, Kate; three daughters: Jamie, Lucy, and Amanda; and six grandchildren.
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