Other Charlotte News Articles by Kuralt

Charles Kuralt's first bylined article in the Charlotte News appeared July 18, 1955. He had just finished four years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (he did not have enough credits to graduate), where he was editor of the student-run newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel. There, Kuralt took liberal stands on the newspaper's editorial pages, and for one of his articles on integration, was called "a pawn of the Communists" on the State Legislature's floor.

He came to the News as a hard-news reporter but soon discovered he did not have what it took for writing day-to-day hard-hitting stories. He failed at his first attempt to write about prostitution in Charlotte. Kuralt, the cheery optimist who always looked to see the best in people, reported to his editor that there was no prostitution in Charlotte. The editor in turn called in reporter Julian Scheer.

"Julian, Charles tells me there's no prostitution in this town," the editor said. "Do you think that's true?" Scheer replied that there might be a few. "Well, do you think you could find Charles one?" The story that resulted can be found here,

Kuralt wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty when necessary, He did one investigative story where he dressed as a bum to spend a night in a rescue mission.

But the young reporter was better-suited for feature articles such as one about Vicki, an elephant who escaped her trainers. He wrote poetically about the death of a sparrow and humorously about pea shooters and Thursday the 12th. He wrote nostalgically about the movies and patriotically about an immigrant. He found his calling, however, in writing about people such as Martha Farmer, who later made an appearance in "People," a black-robed eccenctic, Uncle Bubber, and about Mr. Nix, who voted today, and Princess Margaretc

Kuralt won two North Carolina State Press awards for his feature writing at the News (in addition to the Ernie Pyle Award for his "People" columns). Kuralt too first place for "1946-56: A Decade of Progress," a story about Charlotte's 10 years of progress from 1946 through 1956. "This entry was chosen for the top award because it took what would have been a deadly-dull statistical study of a city's growth and turned it into fascinating reading," a contest judge wrote. "It was that rare thing: A long feature that remained readable throughout."

Kuralt also won third place for a three-part series on "Daddy" Grace, who was a well-known evangelist. The judge commented: "The writer (whose hand I'd like to shake some day) must have done an exhaustive job of digging, which, combined with a superb job of writing, gave readers of the newspaper far more than their five cents worth on the days when the series ran."

Charles Kuralt's People (Kenilworth Media, copyright 2002)
ISBN 0-9679096-1-9 | Hard cover | 384 pages with photos | $25.95

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