Hughes Rudd
Quick Facts
Biography
Hughes Day Rudd (September 14, 1921 in Waco, Texas – October 13, 1992 in Toulouse, France) was a television journalist and CBS News correspondent. Rudd was known for his folksy style, gravelly voice, and unimposing sense of humor, often ending his newscasts with human interest stories that sometimes made him break into a chuckle on camera.
Rudd attended the University of Missouri from 1938 to 1941 before enlisting in the U.S. Army during World War II. Flying Piper Cubs as an artillery spotter pilot in Africa and Europe, Rudd earned a Purple Heart, six Air Medals and a Silver Star.
Following World War II, Rudd began his journalism career writing for several newspapers, including the Kansas City Star, the Minneapolis Tribune and the Rock Springs (Wyo.) Daily Rocket and Sunday Miner.
Rudd got his first position at CBS News as a writer through the influence of his friend Walter Cronkite. Rudd reported from around the world, including tours as a correspondent in Bonn, Berlin, and Moscow. He was an anchor of the CBS Morning News from 1973 to 1977 when the CBS morning news program was more of a news summary similar to the format of The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. At times, Rudd was paired with various other CBS anchors, including, briefly in 1973, Sally Quinn, and later, Bruce Morton and Richard Threlkeld, the latter two based in Washington.
In mid 1979, Rudd was recruited to ABC News by Roone Arledge. Human interest stories, humorous or touching showender pieces became his hallmark. One of his assignments was as announcer for ABC's Wide World of Sports. Always a Francophile, after retirement in 1986 he moved to Valence-d'Albigeois in the department of the Tarn in southwestern France with his wife, Ann.
Rudd's book, My Escape From the C.I.A. and Other Improbable Events, a collection of quasi-autobiographical fiction, was published in 1966 by E. P. Dutton & Company.
He died of an aneurysm at a hospital in Toulouse; his ashes are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
The awards he won included a George Foster Peabody Award for his creative writing on the CBS Morning News in 1977.