JACK-OF-ALL-TRADES

Former Presidential Aide and Journalist Bill Moyers Dead at 91

Moyers wore many hats, from being a White House Press Secretary, a CBS senior news analyst, to the deputy director for the Peace Corps.

Renowned broadcast journalist and presidential aide Bill Moyers has died at 91. Moyers’ son, William Cope Moyers, confirmed that he passed away at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan on Thursday after a “long illness.” Moyers was a jack-of-all-trades, having been a Baptist minister, the deputy director of the Peace Corps, a close aide and White House press secretary to Lyndon B. Johnson, a senior news analyst for The CBS Evening News, and a chief correspondent for CBS Reports. Moyers was aboard Air Force One when Johnson was sworn in as president following former President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and stayed by him until 1966. He then went on to become the publisher of Long Island newspaper Newsday; the paper won two Pulitzers under his guidance. Journalist and author Peter J. Boyer described Moyers as “a rare and powerful voice, a kind of secular evangelist.” Moyers gained critical acclaim for his PBS series Bill Moyers Journal, which The New York Times called “one of the most outstanding series on television.” He later formed the production company Public Affairs Television with his wife, Judith Davidson Moyers. The pair met in college and had three children together.