[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 95 (Tuesday, July 8, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H4840]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 TRIBUTE TO THE LIFE OF CHARLES KURALT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 21, 1997, the gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Price] is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 2 minutes.
  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, Charles Kuralt was an 
ambassador for North Carolina. With a crinkled road map and a two-man 
camera crew, he set out to see America. He was a wonderfully gifted 
storyteller and the story he told was ours. He wanted to showcase the 
very best of America, not the headlines or the lead stories in the news 
but the America of ordinary people living extraordinary lives. Charles 
Kuralt knew that many people report on the mayhem of the world, but he 
had a more important story to tell.
  When Walter Cronkite stepped down from anchoring, Charles Kuralt had 
the opportunity to take the helm but he turned it down so he could 
continue to see America his way, traveling the forgotten State highways 
in his rambling RV, stopping in the small country stores to ``sit a 
spell.''
  He gave a voice to every American. Interviewing the North Carolina 
woman who at 104 years old visited nursing homes each week to sing and 
to bring a smile to tired faces. Or the story of the poor southern 
family that worked to send all nine kids to college. Charles Kuralt 
believed these families and their stories were not only ``small town'' 
America, they were the very essence of America. We understand ourselves 
and each other better because of the work he did among us.
  An ambassador for North Carolina who made us proud, Charles Kuralt is 
being honored at this moment at a memorial service at his alma mater, 
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was a North 
Carolinian who set out to understand America and today, after an 
incredible journey, he will come back home to rest beneath the magnolia 
trees in Chapel Hill.

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