It would not be overstating things much to say that Americans leaned on him in some ways. He was trusted like no one before him and certainly no one since. He was like the nation's favorite old uncle, the bearer of our news and history who somehow came to embody wisdom, patience, dignity and strength.
He was an anchor and an anchorman — reliable, steady, calm, optimistic — and if he ever wasn't, he kept it pretty much to himself.
Except on very rare occasions.
In 2002, Cronkite came to Salt Lake City to serve as narrator for the annual Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. Like other guest performers, he was given an audience with the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — President Gordon B. Hinckley and his counselors, President Thomas S. Monson and President James E. Faust. In that room, there was the collected wisdom of the ages — 335 years in all that day.