Nearly fifteen years into the future I will review some 2006-2008 posts on this blog and discover some bad links indicating web pages that have by that time been taken down or moved or otherwise lost to me. So I will use my time machine to place this post here in 2008.
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DON BAIRD OBITUARY
Family-Placed Death Notice
BAIRD, Don Mr. William Donald Baird, age 72, of Douglasville passed away March 28, 2008 at his residence. He was born in Porterdale, GA on February 10, 1936, the son of the late William Bogan Baird and Wileen McCart Baird. Don was a former writer, journalist and reporter with WSB and CNN. He was a member of Douglasville First United Methodist Church. Surviving are his wife Claudia Baird of Douglasville; children, Kim Hallenbeck of Sugar Hill, David "Rusty" Weinberg of Stone Mountain and Shannon Weinberg of Douglasville; grandchildren Jonathan Robert Hallenbeck and Ryan Alan Hallenbeck both of Sugar Hill; aunt Ruth Baird Shaw of Rome; dear loving friend Christine Coleman McCrosky of Swainsboro, GA and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins. The Celebration of the Life of William Donald Baird will be Monday, April 7, 2008 at 11:00 A.M. at Douglasville First United Methodist Church. Reverend Max Caylor and Reverend Jim Turrentine will officiate. In lieu of flowers the family suggests donations in memory of Don to either The American Cancer Society(www.cancer.org) or The Douglas County Humane Society (www.douglascountyhumanesociety.org). Those who wish to share a special memory or express condolences online may do so at www.whitleygarner.com. Arrangements by Whitley-Garner at Rosehaven Funeral Home, Douglasville, GA, Phone 770-942-4246.
Published by Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Apr. 6, 2008.
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DON BAIRD OBITUARY
News Obituary Article
DOUGLASVILLE: Don Baird, newsman earned respect of his colleagues during 40-year career
By JILL VEJNOSKA
Don Baird didn't have the biggest voice on radio, but everything he did spoke volumes. A versatile, tenacious reporter, he followed the news and newsmakers wherever they led him, especially during the turbulent 1960s.
A respectful crafter of language, he wrote for radio and television --- and even a country song that was recorded by Willie Nelson. A solid newsman with an endearingly soft side, he tracked down former co-workers for reunions and courted his wife with a single flower.
The Who's Who of people he knew and covered during a 40-year journalism career in Georgia extended from one-time governor and segregationist Lester Maddox to civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.
More remarkable still, he rarely met an enemy anywhere he went.
"He was a wonderful, warm human being," said Frank Stiteler, who worked at Atlanta radio station WSB for 25 years, spending much of the 1960s on the on-air side with Baird.
"There was not a phony bone in his body," Mr. Stiteler said. "Some people in the media are kind of artificial. Don was anything but that, and anyone he spent time with could sense that and appreciate it."
Recalled current CNN Radio anchor Dave Kirschner, who began his career at WSB, 750 on the AM dial: "We used to have a phrase back when the station played records. We'd say, 'Now here's a real 750 favorite.' You could call Don that. He was a real 750 favorite."
Mr. Baird, 72, died of cancer Friday in his Douglasville home. He is survived by his wife, Claudia; stepchildren Rusty Weinberg of Stone Mountain, Shannon Weinberg of Douglasville and Kim Hallenbeck of Sugar Hill; and two grandsons.
Working at WSB from 1962 to 1974, Mr. Baird's reporting took him deep inside the civil rights movement and the state Capitol. Veteran radio reporter Mike Kavanagh didn't arrive at WSB until the mid-1970s, but he had long known of Mr. Baird from his reports that went out over the NBC radio network.
"He was the voice of Atlanta, as far as I was concerned," said Mr. Kavanagh, who recalled covering a news conference soon after arriving here and hearing Julian Bond, Joseph Lowery and others ask for Mr. Baird by name. "Don was at the forefront of covering the civil rights movement in the '60s ---which today sounds ho-hum, but back then, it was quite revolutionary and controversial."
Mr. Baird, who went on to work for CNN for 15 years before retiring in 2002, could be dogged if that was what the story called for. His former colleagues delight in recalling the time Mr. Baird sprinted after Mr. Maddox for an interview while the latter was busy chasing black diners from his restaurant.
But he also possessed the touch of the poet. Married to Claudia for three years, he showed up at their first date clutching a single red rose, having read in her Match.com profile that she considered that the most romantic gesture.
He wrote a song, "It Will Come to Pass," that appears on Mr. Nelson's CD "Legends," and was in the middle of writing a novel, "Cabbagetown," according to his wife.
Mr. Baird never grew self-important about his work, his associates said. At the same time, he never failed to appreciate the significance of it.
"In later years, Don told me that one of his greatest thrills was to be able to hold Martin Luther King's Nobel Peace Prize when he interviewed him," Mr. Kavanagh said. "I haven't met many people in this business who've had a wondrous enthusiasm for the work, who thought they were the luckiest person on the planet to be doing it. But that was Don."
About five years ago, that same sense of history led Mr. Baird to organize a reunion of people who had worked at WSB since the 1950s.
"He said, 'We've got to get all these great people and stories together,' and darned if we didn't have a great reunion at Manuel's Tavern," Mr. Kirschner recalled. "It was so great that someone said, 'Let's have another,' and we did."
And they'll continue having them, Mr. Kavanagh vowed Saturday.
A memorial service for Mr. Baird is planned for 11 a.m., April 7 at the United Methodist Church in Douglasville.
--- Staff writer Rhonda Cook contributed to this article.
© 2008 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published by Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Mar. 30, 2008.
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From Downhill, by Janice Shaw Crouse
My cousin, Don Baird, died last week. Don was a radio personality during the heyday of radio at the South’s most prestigious station, WSB in Atlanta. He was also a news anchor at CNN for 15 years when television was new and newsmen were, first and foremost, highly trained and experienced journalists. My favorite memories of Don include trips home to Georgia from college in Kentucky when my sister Joan and I would eagerly scan the radio dial waiting for the moment when we entered the reach of Georgia’s WSB radio station where we could hear Don giving the news in his distinctive, professional voice. Even though we loved to hear our cousin on those trips, it was not until his memorial service that I learned that he was called, “The Voice of the South.”
Four radio celebrities from the golden era of radio spoke at Don’s service and told family and friends things that we didn’t know about Don.
• Mike Kavanagh, a veteran broadcaster in Washington and New York, as well as Atlanta, is a news anchor and winner of numerous journalism awards for investigative reporting and public service awards for his work in the community. An author and financial advisor, he has hosted the popular, award-winning financial advice program, Money Matters, since 1990. Mike described Don as a multi-talented broadcaster who could take information and shape it into a news item in record time. But Mike focused on Don’s ability to make celebrities so comfortable in interviews that they would reveal themselves and provide information previously unknown to the public. Mike described a particularly memorable experience when he accompanied Don to interview Bob Hope. Don established such rapport with Hope that the two journalists were invited to spend the afternoon just hanging around with the famous Bob Hope.
• Don Kennedy was known to generations of children as “Officer Don” on the pioneering WSB-TV children’s show, The Popeye Club. Later, he operated a statewide radio network, but he is best known for the syndicated radio show, Big Band Jump, an “enormously popular” show that highlights big band era music and broadcast history for today’s audience. The minute he speaks, you know this man is a radio personality. What a voice, and what an entertainer! But at my cousin’s memorial service, he spoke of Don Baird’s voice with awe and admiration. He also told us about Don’s creativity and masterful ability to entertain a radio and television audience. He described Don’s 15-year career as a CNN news anchor during a time of journalistic integrity and professionalism.
• Mike McDougald, a member of Georgia’s Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame, told about the thrill of working with Don on WSB’s clear-channel broadcasts during that “golden era” of radio journalism and during the fledgling years of television. Mike emphasized Don’s journalistic integrity and talked about how important it was during that era to “get the story right.”
• Aubrey Morris, a consummate reporter, interviewed every president from Truman through Reagan. “Generations of young reporters learned their craft” from Aubrey; more importantly, he taught them the importance of “enterprise and integrity.” Clearly a professional from the “old school,” The Atlanta Journal said that Aubrey Morris was news director at WSB from 1957 to “almost forever.” His remarks about Don were beautifully crafted and were a highly memorable tribute. He described Don as embodying “quiet competence.” He repeated several times that Don was “highly” competent and always worked with competence and professionalism. Don, he said, could take any story and make it interesting and applicable to the radio or television audience. Don was gifted with the ability, according to Aubrey, to take complexity and make it understandable and “fascinating” to ordinary people.
What was most amazing to me, though, was meeting five people who grew up on the same street with Don in Thomaston, Georgia, a town of only 10,000 people. The street in that small town produced at least five very competent, creative and caring professionals. Among them, Harry Middlebrooks became Don’s partner in writing music. Harry described how he and Don would perform in the back yard as children and the quartet and band they formed in high school. Harry went on to perform as the opening act for Elvis Presley and numerous other well-known performers (Johnny Mathis, Four Freshmen, Jose Feliciano, Neil Diamond, etc). His songs were recorded by Tom Jones, Andy Williams, and others. He expressed his appreciation for Don’s creativity and talent in songwriting and during the lunch after the memorial service, we heard in the background many of the songs that Harry and Don wrote separately and together. One of Don’s most memorable songs was recorded by Willie Nelson.
What was lost in the service, however, was the fact that Don was an only child. After his parents’ deaths years ago, my mother welcomed Don into our family, and he became another son — there for the Christmas dinners and along on the family vacations. Don would entertain the other seven of us siblings with his fascinating stories and sing some of his wonderful songs.
We loved Don because he was Don and because he was so much fun and such an interesting and intriguing personality. In typical Baird fashion, he was self-deprecating and always turned the attention to others. We had to learn from his friends after he was gone about his contributions to the golden age of radio and just how uniquely talented and famous he was in that very special circle of professional broadcasters and newsmen.
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