Former chef: Cronkite died rich but unhappy!
Tags: Ben Bolton, CBS, Marlene Adler, Terri Schwab, Walter Cronkite
| Saturday 18 July 2009 2:13 pm
Walter Cronkite died hours ago, and already a tell-all book about him is in the works.
The CBS star’s former chef and a Boynton journalist are rushing to finish their tome about the darker side of Cronkite’s life.
Cronkite (right) with legendary Martin County seaman Glen Castle in 1985 (Palm Beach Post archives)
And writer Ben Bolton, a 20-year veteran of the Boca-based National Enquirer, is telling me he hopes to find a publisher this week for the tome he co-authored with Terri Schwab.
The 50-year-old Schwab fed Uncle Walter and managed his summer home in Martha’s Vineyard for a decade. She quit in 2006 when the atmosphere, she says, became unbearable.
She told Page2Live Saturday that Cronkite died with $35 million to his name, but was unhappy for most of his last decade.
The Most Trusted Man in America, she said, suffered from dementia and was nearly deaf and blind. He was reviled by his own children, and never married to the woman he loved, Joanna Simon, 68, a sister of singer Carly Simon. Cronkite, Schwab said, moved Joanna into his house less than two months after his wife of 65 years died.
“The book is about Walter Cronkite the man,” Schwab said from Martha’s Vineyard, “not the newsman. I practically lived with him for a decade. I was very close to his wife, Betsy, then him.
“I had access to everything in his life, including financial documents.”
What else does Schwab know? Look below or click
Cronkite’s chief of staff at CBS, which still paid Cronkite a salary 28 years after pushing him out the door, called Schwab “a disgrace” and “deeply disturbed.”
“Mr. Cronkite’s body isn’t even cold,” said Marlene Adler. “Ms. Schwab indeed worked for Mr. Cronkite and did a good job. But what she says about Mr. Cronkite’s family is false. They’re a loving, united family.
“And there was talk of Mr. Cronkite getting married to Joanna. That’s true. But both understood that it wouldn’t be in their best interests and they stayed in a loving relationship.”
The death in 2005 of Cronkite’s wife, Betsy, indirectly caused Schwab’s departure from Cronkite’s employ, Schwab said. He was cranky and demanding and abusive and had a fling-the-phone-across-the-room temper, she said. But that wasn’t bad enough to push her out.
The dysfunctional family situation, she said, had her running for the hills.
“Betsy was the anchor of that family,” Schwab said. “When she was gone, the family went out-of-control. Walter was really never there for his children when they grew up. And now, they were making him pay. There were a lot of arguments and petty stuff.”
Cronkite has three children, son Chip and daughters Kathy and Nancy. In 1994, Kathy wrote a well-received book about her struggles with depression and drug use.
Schwab said she was “hurt” when Joanna Simon started hanging around the Martha’s Vineyard house so soon after Betsy died. But she said Simon brought a new energy to Cronkite’s life.
“She’s an opera singer, so she’d sing all the time and made everybody laugh,” Schwab said. “But she walked into a mine field. The kids didn’t want her around and let her know.
“She and Walter were supposed to get married one July, but they were talked out of it.”
Schwab says she’ll remember the good side of Cronkite.
“Once at (former First Lady) Lady Bird Johnson’s yearly party at his house, he had a piano player play something of Michael Jackson. Walter started imitating (Jackson) and was grabbing his crotch. He could be fun.”
There is no such thing as perfect, life, family, love, and neither money nor fame can make it so! I liked Walter Cronkite. I hope he will rest in peace.
This is disgusting the man hasnt even had a funeral yet,and this money grubbing creature is ready to try and CASH IN.As far as Mr.Cronkite having a bad temper and all that what do you expect the guy lost his beloved wife of 65 yrs. and his kids that claim they had problems with him when they were growing up,well I am sure they are happily going to take the probable millions there going to get from his estate and will help the healing…what a joke.
How nasty of this woman to sully his name in order to get rich quick. Shame on her!
[...] http://www.page2live.com/2009/07/18/former-chef-cronkite-died-rich-but-unhappy/“She and Walter were supposed to get married one July, but they were talked out of it.” Schwab says she’ll remember the good side of Cronkite. “Once at (former First Lady) Lady Bird Johnson’s yearly party at his house, he had a piano … [...]
and that’s the way it was. I never watched him- I thought he was a Republican.
Really, someone would actually buy a book written by a disgruntled employee of this former news anchor’s former wife whom she worked for in some former life? I mean really? What publisher would actually front the money for this? I predict this will be on the dollar store shelf within months.
[...] Former chef and Boynton journalist rush to finish tome about Cronkite’s darker side Remembering Walter Cronkite: He was America’s reporter | Post archive: Cronkite tells it like it is at Kravis Center Photos: The Most Trusted Man in America | Video | More coverage Cronkite announcing Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon on July 20, 1969 Cronkite ended his long stint in the CBS anchor chair [...]
Until we have walked in someones shoes we can’t realy judge them. We as a society have turned more and more to tabloid journalism, so criticize if you wish , but you created the market.
I don’t know what’s more disgusting. This woman babbling about an American icon before he’s buried or the fact that the Post employs a “reporter” - make that columnist - and editor who believe this is worthy of publishing. My how the Post has dropped their standards to get web hits. Shame on you.
“…most trusted man” - makes me want to vomit. This yellow-punk was the VC’s and Communist’s BEST friend.
I hope the moment his creepy soul left his corpse, he began facing the souls of the 50,000+ men killed in Vietnam.
Cronkite was a media thug -
It is so easy for people to judge others. For the record, I am not a disgruntled ex employee. Until you have walked in my shoes you have no room to comment.
Why is it so hard to believe this man was human? As for the book it has been in the works long before Mr. C. passed and he was well aware of its existance. In anwser to the question who would buy it, probably you, for it is people like yourself who created the market.
The first comment on this page was correct, there is no perfect life or person, and niether money nor fame can change that. I as well liked Walter and hope he rests in peace.
The book is simply the truth, something I believe Walter himself made a living and reputation for reporting.
[...] Palm Beach & South Florida gossip & celebrity news | Jose … By Jose Lambiet The 50-year-old Schwab fed Uncle Walter and managed his summer home in Martha's Vineyard for a decade. She quit in 2006 when the atmosphere, she says, became unbearable. She told Page2Live Saturday that Cronkite died with $35 million to his name, … “Once at (former First Lady) Lady Bird Johnson's yearly party at his house, he had a piano player play something of Michael Jackson. Walter started imitating (Jackson) and was grabbing his crotch. He could be fun.” … Palm Beach & South Florida gossip… – http://www.page2live.com/ [...]
If you got the daily news from Uncle Walt, you knew he was not a Republican. People love to dish the dirt but aren’t most families rather dysfunctional.
Ms. Schultz.. Before you release your book I would a book called “You’ll never work in this town Again” if I were you
[...] archive: Cronkite tells it like it is at Kravis Center Former chef and Boynton journalist rush to finish tome about Cronkite’s darker side Remembering Walter Cronkite: He was America’s reporter Photos: The Most Trusted Man in America [...]
[...] Page2Live.com: Former chef and Boynton journalist rush to finish tome about darker side [...]
If Schwab was “hurt” when Joanna Simon started hanging around, perhaps it was because Schwab probably had designs on Walter herself. Sounds like more than a disgruntled former employee - more like a woman scorned who had a fantasy relationship going on that didn’t pan out, so she will cash in on Walter’s death just like the scum and vermin who have done to other celebrities. Why didn’t she do it while he was alive? She was probably afraid that he and his family could refute everything she had to say. I wouldn’t buy this book to like the cage of my parakeet. I think she’s sickening.
What is the big friggin’ deal about Terri Schwab writing a truthful book, both the good and the bad, about Walter Cronkite? It’s ridiculous to the point of being laughable the way people become outraged whenever someone comes forward and tells the COMPLETE story about a person, any person, who has been given God-like status. This type of book is not offensive in the least. What IS offensive is people creating Gods out of mere human beings and insisting that those of us who prefer reality to fantasy-land are somehow despicable people. There’s something a bit demented and pitiful about that kind of thinking.
I heard stories about Walter being estranged from his family, so I for one will be a willing purchaster of this book. For those who don’t like that, it’s news, and as Walter would say, that’s the way it is. I would rather read the truth than all of this garbage manufacturered by CBS publicists.
Who DIES happy.
[...] Page2Live.com: Former chef and Boynton journalist rush to finish tome about darker side [...]
I liked Walter. I thought he should have stayed with CBS.
He never was the same after that, looked like a fish out of water.
Walter was not estranged from his family. His children were with him every day throughout his last illness, and all three of them were there when he died. There were family tensions, yes, but what family doesn’t have them? Is it strange that grown children should be wary of their elderly father’s remarriage so soon after the death of their mother? Don’t you know any families like that?
None of the Cronkites were or are saints, though Betsy might have come close. All the children loved their father. His son and all his grandsons were pallbearers at his funeral. They all miss him, but are glad that he is at rest. All of us who knew him feel the same.
[...] Page2Live.com: Former chef and Boynton journalist rush to finish tome about darker side [...]
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