Person Page 3,333

George Osborne Fawcett was born on 1 May 1930 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England.¹ He died in July 2006, at age 76, in Chester, Cheshire, England.¹

Donald Campbell (D.c.) Meyers was born on 27 January 1907 in Deer Park, York, Ontario, Canada. He and Gwynneth Narwick Osborne were married on 26 April 1934 in Tisdale, Cochrane, Ontario, Canada.¹ He died on 20 April 1966, at age 59, in Toronto, York, Ontario, Canada.

Sheana (Sheanie) Osborne Meyers was born on 11 June 1950 in Ottawa, Carleton, Ontario, Canada. She died on 22 December 1999, at age 49, in Markham, Metro Toronto, York, Ontario, Canada.

Charles William Jennings was born on 6 July 1908 in Toronto, York, Ontario, Canada. He and Elizabeth Ewart Osborne were married on 6 June 1936 in Toronto, York, Ontario, Canada.¹ He died on 14 July 1973, at age 65.

Charles William Jennings was a Radio Announcer- News Journalist.² He was educated North Toronto College.² Charles Jennings was the first Canadian radio announcer to achieve public recognition from coast-to-coast for his presentation of the news. Reading a 15-minute news-and-weather package written by The Canadian Press for the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission's nightly 10.45 Eastern time newscast, Charles quickly established himself as one of Canada's foremost broadcasters, albeit in an era when it was CRBC and CBC policy not to identify newsreaders or announcers on-air.

Charles was born in Toronto and educated at North Toronto Collegiate followed by Trinity college, University of Toronto. But he said formal education irked him and, half way through college, he accepted the lure of the microphone, taking an announcing job in 1928 at CKGW Toronto. GW stood for Gooderham and Worts, the distillery that owned the radio station. His job, he said, was to broadcast "the glad message of Gooderham and Worts" across Lake Ontario to the United States, then under prohibition, where it arrived concurrently with moonlight cargoes of Canadian whisky.

He worked briefly in New York then returned to Canada and joined the CRBC (forerunner to the CBC) where after two years he became chief announcer. In 1939 he became supervisor of program planning; in 1943 right-hand man to Ernie Bushnell, director general of programs; in 1953 director of programs, and in 1955 assistant controller of broadcasting. In 1959 he was made general manager of regional broadcasting and became vice-president of the CBC in 1964. He retired in 1971, and died two years later, leaving his wife, Elizabeth, daughter Sarah, and son Peter, who even then was becoming a household name with ABC news.

The man with a voice to vie with Lorne Greene's, who started as an announcer and ended as a vice-president, always believed that programming was the one thing that mattered. He was a nationalist with an aversion to what he called creeping Americanism.
Among the major stories he covered during his career were the arrival of the first dirigibles in Canada from England, the maiden voyage of the first Empress of Britain, the inauguration of President Roosevelt and the 1939 tour by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. For years, Charles announced Toronto Symphony Orchestra programs. He pressured the CBC to provide the Toronto Conservatory of Music with an electronic music studio.

Around the CBC he was sometimes known as the squire because of his height, florid complexion and liking for tweeds. He was also known as a practical joker, especially liking to prick pomposity. After retirement, when he thought the CBC was getting over-serious about political correctness at the Toronto city council, he dispatched a protest telegram from his hobby farm at Lucerne, Que., saying the Donkey Association of Western Quebec objected to the use of the word horsepower in CBC programs. It was signed Charlotte and Apricot Jennings. Charlotte and Apricot were his two donkeys.

In 1978, Charles Jennings was elected posthumously to the Canadian News Hall of Fame.

Peter Charles Archibald Jennings was born on 29 July 1938 in Toronto, York, Ontario, Canada. He died on 7 August 2005, at age 67, in Manhattan, New York, New York. He was buried Cremated.¹

Peter Charles Archibald Jennings was a Canadian-American Journalist.² Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings, CM (July 29, 1938 - August 7, 2005) was a Canadian-American journalist who served as the sole anchor of ABC World News Tonight from 1983 until his death from lung cancer in 2005. Despite dropping out of high school, he transformed himself into one of American television's most prominent journalists.

Jennings started his career early, hosting a Canadian radio show at the age of nine. He began his professional career with CJOH-TV in Ottawa during its early years, anchoring the local newscasts and hosting a teen dance show, Saturday Date, on Saturdays. In 1965, ABC News tapped him to anchor its flagship evening news program. His inexperience was attacked by critics and others in television news, making for a difficult first stint in the anchor chair. Jennings became a foreign correspondent in 1968, reporting from the Middle East.

He returned as one of World News Tonight's three anchors in 1978, and was promoted to the role of sole anchor in 1983. Jennings was also known for his marathon coverage of breaking news stories, staying on the air for 15 or more hours straight to anchor the live broadcast of events such as the outbreak of the Gulf War in 1991, the Millennium celebrations in 2000, and the September 11 attacks in 2001. In addition to anchoring, he was the host of many ABC News special reports and moderated several American presidential debates. Having always been fascinated with the United States, Jennings became a naturalized United States citizen in 2003.

Along with Tom Brokaw at NBC and Dan Rather at CBS, Jennings formed part of the "Big Three" news anchors who dominated American evening network news from the early 1980s until his death in 2005, which closely followed the retirements of Brokaw and Rather.

Early life:
Jennings was born on July 29, 1938, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; he and his younger sister Sarah were the only two children of Elizabeth (née Osborne) and Charles Jennings, a prominent radio broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Peter Jennings started his broadcasting career at the age of nine, hosting Peter's People, a half-hour, Saturday morning, CBC Radio show for kids. His father was on a business trip to the Middle East when the show debuted; upon returning, Charles Jennings, who harbored a deep dislike of nepotism, was outraged to learn that the network had put his son on the air.

When Jennings was 11 he began attending Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario, where he excelled in sports. After the CBC moved his father to its Ottawa headquarters in the early 1950s, Jennings transferred to Lisgar Collegiate Institute. He struggled academically, and Jennings later surmised that it was out of "pure boredom" that he failed 10th grade and dropped out. "I loved girls," he said. "I loved comic books. And for reasons I don't understand, I was pretty lazy." Jennings then briefly attended Carleton University, where he says he "lasted about 10 minutes" before dropping out. He also attended the University of Ottawa.

Although Jennings dreamed of following in his father's footsteps in broadcasting, his first job was as a bank teller for the Royal Bank of Canada. He had hoped that the company would assign him to its Havana branch; instead, it located him to the small town of Prescott, Ontario, before transferring him to its nearby Brockville branch. During this time, he explored acting by appearing in several amateur musical productions with the Orpheus Musical Theatre Society, including Damn Yankees and South Pacific.

It was in Brockville that the 21-year-old Jennings started his rise in broadcasting. In 1959, CFJR, a local radio station, hired him as a member of its news department; many of his stories, including his coverage of a local train wreck, were picked up by the CBC. By 1961, Jennings had joined the staff of CJOH-TV, then a new television station in Ottawa. When the station launched in March 1961, Jennings was initially an interviewer and co-producer for Vue, a late-night news program. His producers saw a youthful attractiveness in him that resembled that of Dick Clark, and Jennings soon found himself hosting Club Thirteen, a dance show similar to American Bandstand.

The next year, CTV, Canada's first private TV network and a fledgling competitor of his father's network, hired the 24-year-old Jennings as co-anchor of its late-night national newscast. While reporting for CTV, he was the first Canadian journalist to arrive in Dallas after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In 1964, CTV sent Jennings to cover the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. There, he ran into Elmer Lower, then president of ABC News, who offered him a job as a correspondent for the American network, an opportunity Jennings initially rejected. "The job was pretty intimidating for a guy like me in a tiny city in Canada," Jennings later recalled. "I thought, What if I screw up? What if I fail?" Three months later though, he changed his mind and moved to the United States.

Honors:
Jennings won numerous honors throughout his career, including 16 Emmys and two George Foster Peabody Awards. His work on World News Tonight and Peter Jennings Reporting consistently won Overseas Press Club and duPont-Columbia awards. At the peak of his popularity, Jennings was named "Best Anchor" by the Washington Journalism Review in 1988, 1989, 1990, and 1992. The Radio and Television News Directors Association awarded Jennings its highest honor, the Paul White Award in 1995, in recognition of his lifetime contributions to journalism. In 2004, he was awarded with the Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Broadcasting from Washington State University.

Just eight days before his death, Jennings was informed that he would be inducted into the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honor. His daughter, Elizabeth, accepted the insignia on his behalf in October 2005. On February 21, 2006, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg designated the block on West 66th Street between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West as Peter Jennings Way in honor of the late anchor; the block is home to the ABC News headquarters. In October 2006, The Walt Disney Company, which bought ABC in 1996, posthumously named Jennings a Disney Legend, the company's highest honor. He was the first ABC News employee so honored. In January 2011, Jennings was posthumously inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Television Hall of Fame.

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Published in The Ottawa Citizen from Aug. 9 to Aug. 11, 2005
Obituary
Peter Jennings

JENNINGS, Peter 1938 - 2005 Much loved husband of Kayce Freed, father to Elizabeth and Christopher Jennings, uncle to Tegan Schioler and brother to Sarah Jennings. Very peacefully, the evening of August 7, 2005, surrounded by family. Peter's many philanthropic efforts included the Coalition for the Homeless, Women in Need and Teach for America. He had broad interests in the arts, was a trustee of New York's Carnegie Hall and a founding director of the American wing of Friends of the National Arts Centre. He was a recent recipient of the Order of Canada. Donations in his memory would be welcome to any of the above causes or to support lung cancer research. A Memorial Service will be held in Peter's honour in New York at the end of September on a date to be announced, as well as a special event in Ottawa also to be arranged.

Katherine (Kate) Wesley was born on 7 April 1865 in Canada West. She died on 10 October 1929, at age 64. She was buried in Mount Osborne Cemetery, Beamsville, Lincoln, Niagara, Ontario, Canada.

Roy Wesley Henry was born on 25 June 1885 in Ontario, Canada. He and Pauline J. Messenger were married on 25 March 1914 in Wapello, Louisa, Iowa. He died on 14 January 1969, at age 83. He was buried in Mount Osborne Cemetery, Beamsville, Lincoln, Niagara, Ontario, Canada.¹

Roy Wesley Henry was an Insurance Broker.¹

Levelyn (Lillian Evelyn) Henry was born in 1887. She died in 1887, at age ~0. She was buried in Mount Osborne Cemetery, Beamsville, Lincoln, Niagara, Ontario, Canada.¹

Died at age 4 months.

Beatrice Aileen Catherine Henry was born on 28 March 1888 in Beamsville, Lincoln, Niagara District, Ontario, Canada. She and Harold Eugene Reesor were married on 25 November 1908 in Hamilton, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada.

Ernest Montague Henry was born on 24 January 1890 in Beamsville, Lincoln, Niagara District, Ontario, Canada. He died on 19 November 1913, at age 23, in Beamsville, Lincoln, Niagara District, Ontario, Canada. He was buried in Mount Osborne Cemetery, Beamsville, Lincoln, Niagara, Ontario, Canada.¹

Ontario Ralph Henry was born on 21 August 1891 in Beamsville, Lincoln, Niagara District, Ontario, Canada. He died on 22 May 1919, at age 27, in Beamsville, Lincoln, Niagara District, Ontario, Canada. He was buried in Mount Osborne Cemetery, Beamsville, Lincoln, Niagara, Ontario, Canada.

Ontario Ralph Henry was a Bank Clerk.¹

Harold Reginald Henry was born on 5 September 1893 in Beamsville, Lincoln, Niagara District, Ontario, Canada.

Marjory Winifred Henry was born on 17 August 1897 in Lincoln County, Niagara District, Ontario, Canada. She died on 23 May 1957, at age 59. She was buried in Mount Osborne Cemetery, Beamsville, Lincoln, Niagara, Ontario, Canada.¹

Pauline J. Messenger was born in November 1887 in Burlington, Des Moines, Iowa. She and Roy Wesley Henry were married on 25 March 1914 in Wapello, Louisa, Iowa. She died Canada.¹