‘Meet the Press’ host Bill Monroe dies at 90

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Bill Monroe, 90, who hosted the long-running Washington political television show ‘Meet the Press’ for nearly a decade, died Thursday at a Washington-area nursing home.

Monroe was the NBC show’s fourth moderator, from 1975 to 1984, and interviewed prominent political figures including President Jimmy Carter and U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Tim Russert, the best known host of ‘Meet the Press,’ assumed the host’s chair in 1991 after a series of short stints by others after Monroe’s departure.

Monroe’s daughter, Lee Monroe, said her father had taken a fall in December that put him in a nursing home and he had not been well since.

Bill Monroe was born in New Orleans on July 17, 1920. He graduated from Tulane University, served in World War II and later began his career in television journalism at the New Orleans NBC affiliate, WDSU.

In 1961 he moved to Washington, where he became NBC’s bureau chief. He worked on the ‘Today Show,’ winning the Peabody Award in 1972, and succeeded Lawrence Spivak as host of ‘Meet the Press’ in 1975.

On his first day as the show’s permanent moderator he interviewed Gov. George Wallace of Alabama, the staunch segregationist who was at the time running for president.

‘Have you personally changed your views about segregation?’ Monroe asked.

When Wallace didn’t respond directly, Monroe cut him off and repeated the question. Wallace began to stumble through his next response, and Monroe asked a third time: ‘Have your views changed?’

Wallace finally claimed that race relations were better in Alabama than other parts of the country.

Marvin Kalb, who with Roger Mudd co-hosted ‘Meet the Press’ after Monroe left, called him a ‘consummate interviewer’ and a ‘gracious host.’

‘I think fairness was the word that would best describe him as host,’ Kalb said.

Monroe talked about his career in an interview for the Archive of American Television seen in the YouTube clip above. Listen to the entire interview here.

-- Associated Press