Remembering 2024’s Losses: Bob Edwards

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One thing for sure: this weather is making me lazy! I stayed in bed an extra hour, not to sleep but to just stay warm. Now I’m up and ready to take on the day (which may or may not include putting my recycling bin at the curb). My main task today is to myLot, and that includes my series on the people we said goodbye to in 2024. A Louisville native was among those, and here he is. Bob Edwards Back in 2020 I did a series of famous Louisvillians, and I included Bob Edwards in the list. How quickly they forget. Edwards was the host of National Public Radio’s (NPR) Morning Edition for twenty five years. (He is credited with creating the show, too.) He was also the host of NPR’s All Things Considered. I’ve heard DJs say they have a “face for radio” as a joke, but Bob Edwards had a voice that was absolutely made for radio. Edwards was born here, went to St. X (one of our two nationally-acclaimed Catholic high schools), and served as an Armed Forces Network reporter in the Army during Vietnam. After that, he went to work for NPR. And oh, did he work for NPR. That golden voice greeting you every morning with sometimes the worst news imaginable and other times lighthearted fare to start your day was a perfect match of journalism and vocal intonation. Edwards was such a fixture at NPR that, when they parted ways in 2004, NPR got a LOT of hate mail. Not to worry, because Edwards continued working. He moved to SiriusXM and also did podcasts for AARP. Along the way he was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, the National Radio Hall of Fame, and won a Peabody Award for his work. Edwards passed away in February 2024, leaving the bar for broadcast journalists set very, very high. Bob Edwards Born Robert Alan Edwards, May 16, 1947, Louisville, Kentucky Died February 10, 2024, Arlington, Virginia (bladder cancer) (age 76) HALLS OF FAME: Kentucky Journalism; National Radio Broadcast Here’s a local news article from WAVE about his death: