Howard Kingsbury Smith (May 12, 1914 â€" February 15, 2002) was an
American journalist, radio reporter, television anchorman, political
commentator, and film actor. He was one of the original members of the
team of war correspondents known as the Murrow Boys.Smith was born in
Ferriday in Concordia Parish in eastern Louisiana near Natchez,
Mississippi, to Howard K. Smith, a nightwatchman descended from a poor
"gentleman-farming" family of Lettsworth, Pointe Coupee Parish (north
of Baton Rouge), and the former Minnie Gates, the daughter of a Cajun
riverboat pilot.Smith worked his way through Tulane University in New
Orleans, studying German and journalism. After his graduation in 1936,
with both Bachelor of Arts degrees, he signed on as a deckhand with a
ship bound for Germany, where he briefly studied at Heidelberg
University. In 1936, he spent a year as a reporter in New Orleans
before securing a Rhodes Scholarship to Merton College, Oxford, from
which he graduated in 1939. Smith became active in student politics,
mostly protesting Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's seemingly soft
attitude toward Nazism. While at Oxford, he was the first American to
chair the Oxford University Labour Club.
American journalist, radio reporter, television anchorman, political
commentator, and film actor. He was one of the original members of the
team of war correspondents known as the Murrow Boys.Smith was born in
Ferriday in Concordia Parish in eastern Louisiana near Natchez,
Mississippi, to Howard K. Smith, a nightwatchman descended from a poor
"gentleman-farming" family of Lettsworth, Pointe Coupee Parish (north
of Baton Rouge), and the former Minnie Gates, the daughter of a Cajun
riverboat pilot.Smith worked his way through Tulane University in New
Orleans, studying German and journalism. After his graduation in 1936,
with both Bachelor of Arts degrees, he signed on as a deckhand with a
ship bound for Germany, where he briefly studied at Heidelberg
University. In 1936, he spent a year as a reporter in New Orleans
before securing a Rhodes Scholarship to Merton College, Oxford, from
which he graduated in 1939. Smith became active in student politics,
mostly protesting Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's seemingly soft
attitude toward Nazism. While at Oxford, he was the first American to
chair the Oxford University Labour Club.
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