Peter Jennings, a Canadian journalist who had won over the US with his congenial and matter-of-fact style in the anchor chair of ABC News, died late Sunday after a brief bout with lung cancer, his family and employer announced. He was 67.
A mild-mannered man with keen news judgement, Jennings had been with ABC television for more than 40 years, more than 20 of them as anchor of World News Tonight, covering seminal events from the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement of the 1960s to the 1989 collapse of the Berlin Wall and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Jennings has not been on the air since April 5 when, fighting back tears, he told stunned viewers he had lung cancer and needed time to fight the deadly disease. He added he hoped to learn from almost 10 million cancer-stricken Americans "how to cope with the facts of life that none of us anticipated."
He underwent an aggressive chemotherapy treatment that resulted in significant weight loss and made his voice hoarse. But it was no match for the malign tumor, first detected just last spring, his colleagues said.
Jennings was a former smoker who quit in 1988 but had a relapse in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks when he admitted he needed something to alleviate tension that came with his job.
In a brief statement, the family said Jennings had died peacefully in his New York apartment, surrounded by his wife, children and sister.
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