COCHRAN, Ronald Vern 1912 - 1994

COCHRAN, SMITH, TRACHT

Posted By: Richard K Thompson (email)
Date: 11/11/2011 at 21:30:48

"The Fairfield Ledger"
Monday, July 25, 1994
Page 14, Columns 1 & 2

OBITUARIES

Ron COCHRAN

Retired TV network anchorman and radio newscaster Ron COCHRAN, 81, of Aberdeen, Fla., formerly of Fairfield, died of heart failure this morning, Monday, July 25, 1994, at Palm Beach Regional Hospital.

Arrangements are pending.

Ronald Vern COCHRAN was born near Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, in 1912, to an Iowa couple, Mr. and Mrs. Fred COCHRAN, who returned to Fairfield in 1920. COCHRAN graduated from Fairfield High School, received a bachelor of science degree in physics from Parsons College, and later did graduate work at the University of Florida in Gainesville. It was a stint with a small theater group in Gainesville that turned him toward broadcasting, after a member of the audience complimented him on his mellifluous voice and suggested that he go into radio.

He began his broadcast career at WHBF radio in Rock Island, Ill., in 1935, moved to KRNT radio in Des Moines in 1937, and worked at KWK radio before becoming a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Tampa and New York. He later was a speech writer for Tom Dewey's presidential campaign in 1944 and returned to broadcasting as news director of WCOP radio in Boston in 1945.

He joined CBS TV in 1950 in Washington, D.C., where he anchored the early and late evening news at WTOP, and also hosted several shows for CBS radio. He was the ABC Television news anchor from 1963 to 1965, hosting "The ABC Evening News with Ron Cochran." He also hosted the early and late evening news on WCBS in New York from 1954 to 1962. Other assignments included hosting the Armstrong Circle Theater, and covering the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York for several years in the 1950s and 1960s.

COCHRAN won many industry awards during his career, including an Emmy for best local late news in 1957, 1959 and 1960. In 1957, his late news on WCBS TV set a record, which still stands, for the highest rating for a local newscast in New York.

During his career, COCHRAN covered many major news events. He accompanied Pres. John F. Kennedy to Europe in 1963 for ABC, when the network provided exclusive coverage of the event via the first television satellite. He was ABC anchor for the coverage of Kennedy's assassination in Dallas. As a newscaster for KWK radio in St. Louis, he announced the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was part of the first radio network team that covered the 1948 Democratic Convention in Philadelphia when Harry S. Truman was nominated as the presidential candidate.

He also covered the hearings that led to Gen. Douglas MacArthur's dismissal during the Korean War in 1951, Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower's inauguration in 1952, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953, and the U.S. Senate anti-Communist hearings led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy in 1953-54.

He left ABC radio in 1965 and started Ron Cochran Enterprises, which produced radio and televison programs. He moved to Boca Raton, Fla., in 1980, where he continued to do human interest pieces for local radio stations until 1986.

Surviving are his wife of 56 years, Beulah; a son, Ronald W. of Sandy Hook, Conn.; and a daughter, Judith COCHRAN-SMITH of Indianapolis.

* Transcribed for genealogy purposes. I am not related to the person(s) mentioned.

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Added by Admin, December 2020 --

"The Fairfield Ledger"
Tuesday, September 20, 1994
Page 12, Columns 1 and 2

Ron COCHRAN

A memorial service for Ron COCHRAN, 81, of Aberdeen, Fla., who died Monday, July 25, 1994, at Palm Beach Regional Hospital in Palm Beach, Fla., will be at 4 p.m. Saturday at Behner Funeral Home with the Rev. Kenneth Royar officiating. Burial of ashes will be at a later date. A memorial has been established to the Fairfield Public Library.

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*Transcribed for genealogy purposes; I have no relation to the person(s) mentioned.

RKT note: Buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Fairfield, Jefferson county, Iowa. 4th.096.

Admin addendum: Wife Beulah M. TRACHT COCHRAN died in 2003 in Indianapolis, IN, and is buried with Ron.