A Tree

 If I were a tree, I would be the kind that openly wept upon hearing that Barbara Walters died.

If you were a tree, you might know who Barbara Walters was, depending on when you were planted. And depending on when you were planted, you might get that joke. Back in 1981 when the esteemed televisoin journalist was interviewing Katherine Hepburn, she asked Ms. Hepburn what kind of tree she thought she might be. For the record, the for time Oscar winner replied that she could be an oak or a disease struck Dutch Elm. 

This kind of question might have gotten a lesser interviewer laughed out of the business, but there was nothing lesser about Barbara Walters. She entered the male-dominated world of television news in 1961 as a writer for the Today show, She began to fill in as the "Today Girl," reporting on fashion and weather and other less-weighty affairs. She got her big break when she accompanied First Lady Jaqueline Kennedy to cover her trip to India for NBC. This lead to a quiet move into the co-anchor seat on the Today show with Hugh Downs, but it would be 1974 before she ever received the title. 

ABC came calling with a million dollar per year contract to co-host their evening news, much to the disdain of Harry Reasoner. This move did not create the ratings bonanza her new bosses had hoped for, but the prime-time specials that Ms. Walters began hosting, including gets like president-elect Jimmy Carter and later a joint interview with Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin solidified her cred as a journalist and a media star in her own right. From there she moved to another co-hosting gig on the newly minted 20/20 with her old pal Hugh Downs. She was a staple there for twenty-five years. 

In 2014, she retired from broadcast news, having interviewed everyone from Fidel Castro to Monica Lewinsky. Along the way, she started up and executive produced the morning chat show, The View, opening the door for still more aspiring woman journalists and talk-show hosts. Oprah Winfrey has cited Barbara Walters as an inspiration for her own career in television. 

Difficult not to reflect back on Gilda Radner's "Babwa Wawa," or the coulntless parodies from a life lived in front of the camera, Barbara Walters stomped on the Terra fiercely enough to make a path for those women and men who came after her. A tree has fallen in the forest, and make no mistake, Barbara Walters made some noise.