There once was a time when a man, nearly everybody trusted and looked forward to hearing from reported twice a day. In the morning, he gave a complete summary of the news. At lunch time, he told you a story. The story was usually both informative and surprising, often focusing on a person or event of which everyone was aware, but nobody knew the complete version. Or perhaps there was a little known fact which had tremendous impact upon history.
His voice. Oh my gosh. If you were a regular listener, you can certainly remember his voice, years after he the radio waves. Twenty-four million people tuned in to listen to him on a daily basis. He spoke with us everyday, except Sunday.
Born Paul Harvey Aurandt September 4, 1918, he was a native of our state. He was raised in his birth city, Tulsa, where his father was a police officer. When he was three years old his father, Harry Aurandt, was killed by four masked men in a robbery while off duty and rabbit hunting. He was raised by his mother, Anna.
It seems he was always fascinated by radio. As a boy he built his own radio receivers. He got a job cleaning at KVOO at the age of fourteen. In high school his voice was so impressive that he was given the opportunity to fill in from time to time at the radio station, reading the news and doing some commercials.
He attended the University of Tulsa, while he continued to work at KVOO, where he eventually became a program manager. Later he became station manager at KFBI in Salina, Kansas. Moving back to Oklahoma, he became a news broadcaster for KOMA. Another move put him at KXOK in St. Louis.
He married Lynne Cooper in 1940 while in St. Louis. He met her when she visited the radio station because of a school news program. He proposed to her during their first dinner together; she said yes a year later. For nearly their entire lives together he affectionately referred to Lynne as Angel. Angel was more than his wife. She was the driving force behind him. She was his business partner and producer. She developed his Rest of the Story Segments. She was a powerhouse in the radio industry, becoming the first producer to ever be inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame and the first Chicago Chapter of America Women in Radio and Television award winner. She developed the
After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, he decided to enlist in the US Army Air Force in 1943, but he was given a medical discharge in 1944. He moved to Chicago, working for an ABC station WENR, where he began his News and Comment program. If you heard it, you remember a familiar voice saying:
“Paul Harvey here. Stand by for News!”
He began his Rest of the Story segments in 1976. Those segments began with:
“You know what the news is, in a minute you’re going to hear… the rest of the story.”
In addition to his passion for radio and broadcasting, he was also an avid pilot. He was a member of the AOPA and the EAA. He was a frequent attendee of the EAA gathering in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
As far as awards are concerned, he was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame, The Oklahoma Hall of Fame, and the DeMolay Hall of Fame. He received the Horatio Alger Award, the Freedom Foundation Award eleven times, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Paul White Radio Television Award, the Order of Lincoln Award from the State of Illinois, an Honorary Degree from Washington University in St. Louis, and the honor of Laureate from the Lincoln Academy of Illinois.
In 2007, he announced on air that his Angel had leukemia. On May 3, 2008 she died. She was 92. Nine months later, February 28, 2009, Paul Harvey died at the age of 90.
But did you know all of that might not have happened?
Of special interest to Paul Harvey was the level of security at government and research institutions; particularly when they were less secure than he thought they should be. It became a popular topic of conversation in his news programs. On February 6, 1951, in an effort to demonstrate the poor level of security, he scaled a fence at Argonne National Laboratory which is a Nuclear Research Facility west of Chicago. He was quickly apprehended by security guards, and the US Attorney for Illinois enrolled a grand jury to indict him on an espionage charge. Fortunately for Paul Harvey, the grand jury declined and on April 1, 1951 Paul Harvey’s News and Comments debuted on ABC Radio and the rest is history….
But now you know … the rest of the story.
Paul Harvey, Good Day.
