Media & Arts
Dan Rather
Wharton-born Dan Rather learned reporting in Huntsville and Houston before moving to CBS, making Texas local journalism the training ground for a six-decade national news career.
- Roster rank
- #207
- Category
- Media & Arts
- Subject type
- Person
- Profile source
- Published Texas Icons profile
Texas story
Life and career
Dan Rather was born in Wharton in 1931 and moved with his family to Houston Heights as a child. He earned a journalism degree from Sam Houston State College in 1953 while working in Huntsville radio and reporting, then developed his professional range at KTRH, the Houston Chronicle, KTRK and KHOU.
Rather's coverage of Hurricane Carla helped propel him to CBS News, where he reported on civil rights, the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam, Watergate and presidential politics before anchoring the CBS Evening News from 1981 to 2005. His Texas biography is therefore unusually continuous: Wharton birth, Houston upbringing and newsroom work, Huntsville education, and a Dallas CBS bureau assignment all precede or accompany the national career.
Defining work
What to know
- Hurricane Carla coverage
- CBS Evening News
- 60 Minutes
- Kennedy assassination coverage
- Watergate reporting
Timeline
Key milestones
- 1931Born in Wharton, Texas.
- 1953Earns a journalism degree from Sam Houston State College.
- 1961Hurricane Carla coverage at KHOU draws national attention.
- 1962Joins CBS News.
- 1981Begins anchoring the CBS Evening News.
Texas connections
Places in the story
Birthplace.
Houston Heights
Childhood home and city where his early professional reporting developed.
Huntsville
Sam Houston State education and early radio/journalism work.
Legacy
Why the story lasts
Rather's career spans local Texas radio, early television field reporting, network anchoring and later documentary and digital work.
The Texas connection is not decorative: Houston and Huntsville supplied the reporting habits and broadcast experience that carried directly into CBS.
Sources
Research trail
Cross-linked profiles