Ed Bradley, CBS News Reporter, 1941-2006

Ed Bradley, a long-time reporter for CBS News whose portfolio ranged from uncovering the killing fields of Cambodia to interviews with notables ranging from mass murderer Timothy Mc Veigh to megacelebrities such as Patti Labelle and Tiger Woods, died today of complications of leukemia, according to news reports.

One of the first African Americans to become a major figure in American journalism, Bradley won 19 Emmy Awards for his reporting, according to an obituary in the Washington Post. This year marked his 25th year as an anchor and reporter for 60 Minutes.

Bradley, a Philadelphia native, was a 6th grade teacher in the mid-1960s when he met Georgie Woods, the legendary DJ from city's leading black radio station, WDAS. In a talk for the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, Bradley recalled that he visited WDAS soon after. According to Bradley, "I just knew when I walked out of there that night that I was put on this earth to be on radio."

Woods let Bradley hang around the station, and gradually, Bradley got to spin records and take on other tasks involved in putting on the broadcasts. In 1963, the station hired him for $1.50 per hour, and Bradley quit his teaching job.

From WDAS, Bradley earned a reporting job at WCBS radio. He joined the CBS news staff in 1971 as a stringer for the Paris bureau, but his reporting assignments soon took him to Vietnam and other hot spots around the world.

Today, stunned colleagues are praising Bradley as a consummate newsman and exemplary man. CNN is interviewing many of the journalists who worked with him over the last 35 years. One of them, Larry King, promised that he will devote a significant portion this evening's broadcast to a tribute to the fallen journalist. Tributes are also pouring into the CBS News website.

Bradley's death is also a lead item on the website of the National Association of Black Journalists, of which Bradley was a long-time member. A tribute is in progress for a man who was a hero and role model to thousands of black journalists who followed in his footsteps.

This writer is included among those thousands of admirers. I did not know him personally, but I took great pride in watching him as I was growing up. Sometimes I would see him at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, and I marvelled at the fact that his off-camera persona was just as smooth and smart as he was on camera. He was an amazing interviewer -- gently getting people to reveal themselves. I will never forget his reports from Cambodia -- and his sly way of teasing Aretha Franklin about the sexual innuendo in her classic anthem, "Respect." He was just plain good.

Bradley is survived by his wife, Patricia Blanchet.

Photo: CBSnews.com