Salisbury (NC) Post
February 02, 2003

Kuralt's old columns bring plain folks to life
"Charles Kuralt's People," edited by Ralph Grizzle. Kenilworth Media, Asheville. 359 pp. $25.95.
By Susan Shinn, Salisbury Post

Charles Kuralt died July 4, 1997, and we still miss him.

Sunday mornings just aren't the same without his rich, soothing baritone voice, urging us to slow down and take our time, and learn something about our fellow man on the CBS show, "Sunday Morning."

Before "Sunday Morning," Kuralt roamed the country in his CBS show, "On the Road."

But even before "On the Road," he roamed the streets of 1950s Charlotte as a young reporter with the Charlotte News, writing columns about people. These were people whose lives on the surface may not seem all that relevant or important, but Kuralt, even as a 22-year-old, showed his readers that every life had a purpose.

Writer Ralph Grizzle stumbled across Charles Kuralt's "People" columns while researching the book, "Remembering Charles Kuralt." He decided to compile them into a book of their own, because, as he writes in the introduction, "I thought then that they deserved a better home than the dark, closed drawers where they were stored on microfilm."

Kuralt wrote about a Charlotte that's now gone forever - but his words in these 169 columns written between April 15, 1956, and Dec. 28, 1956, still ring true about the value of each human being and the perseverance of the human spirit.

These columns were meaningful - so much so that Kuralt was named the 1956 winner of the Ernie Pyle award, given annually to two journalists "most nearly exemplifying the style and craftsmanship" of the great World War II reporter and human interest columnist.

Salisbury Post columnist Rose Post won the award in 1989.

Like Post, Kuralt was a craftsman of words, as these columns attest. They're not long, only a page and a half, but are so rich with color and life that you can almost see the people Kuralt is telling you about - most of whom are probably long gone by now.

He writes about 35-year-old Martha Farmer, who fell in love one night at the Charlotte bus station with a man who offered her his milkshake.

Thomas Hunter, a 43-year-old farmer, always wanted a black sheep. He saw a picture in the paper of one from Iowa, and called Kuralt about it.

He interviewed Arthur House, a black man who served as the yard man of First Presbyterian Church. Then, as in later years, Kuralt paid no attention to a person's color or standing in life. He wanted to talk to everyone.

He wrote about the Rev. Shelton M. Hutchinson, who collected a whole passel of unusual items - musical instruments, fossils, coins, buttons, antiques and the like.

He wrote about Bobby Green, who owned a hot dog stand.

He wrote of locksmiths and construction workers and two men with the same name and cab drivers. Kuralt talked to people on the street whom others would pass by and never think twice about. And he found a story inside all of them.

A.B. Medlin was an 87-year-old trapper. Bob Gillis was a dueling instructor at the YMCA. There are immigrant restaurateurs and kids and one-armed banjo players and paperboys. They're all here.

Most people in the book you've probably never heard of. There was, however, 28-year-old Bob Raiford, who was fired from WBT for playing some opinions of the attack on Nat King Cole in Birmingham, Ala. He went on to New York and NBC, and is now, all these many years later, still in the business and on the air as the commentator and "curmudgeon at large" on the John Boy and Billy morning show in Charlotte.

No reason is given why Kuralt stopped writing his "People" column. One assumes he went on to bigger and better things, which, of course, he did.

Contact Susan Shinn at 704-797-4289 or sshinn@salisburypost.com.

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

To order by phone call 1-954-727-3320.
To pay by check, please make payable to Kenilworth Media, 28 Kenilworth Road, Asheville, North Carolina 28803. Add $3.95 for Priority Mail shipping with Delivery Confirmation. North Carolina residents add $1.55 sales tax. Total price for NC residents: $31.45; non-NC residents, $29.90.

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