Kerr Won't Sing the Blues

by Michael Kelly, Omaha World-Herald columnist
Published Sunday, January 03, 1999

Gary Kerr was Omaha's version of Walter Cronkite - steady and sober when bearing good news or bad.

Last week Kerr left WOWT-Channel 6 after 34 years, the longest on-air tenure for a full-time journalist in the 49-year history of Omaha TV news.

On New Year's Eve he signed off, saying Omaha has turned into "a truly big city, with all the advantages and problems connected to being a big city."

Nothing maudlin, nothing sappy. Gary Kerr, so much a voice and face of Omaha after being in our family rooms all those years, smiled and said farewell. And "thank you."

If Kerr was part of the furniture, he was a big, comfortable easy chair, the kind that wears well. Not flashy, not a quipster or a "happy-talker," he succeeded without movie-star looks by being believable - which, of course, is the hallmark of a good journalist.

Off the air, Kerr is a good dancer, a hellacious Ping Pong player and an avid fan of blues music. He's leaving his station at age 59, so it's not necessarily a retirement.

Unhappy at being removed as co-anchor of the 5 p.m. news, he decided "there wasn't a future here for me anymore." But he's not singing the blues.

"When you stack that up against 34 years of positives here," he said, "it's not a big thing. It's just time to go."

Farm Boy
Kerr grew up on a South Dakota farm and attended a one-room schoolhouse across the Sioux River in Akron, Iowa. He acted in high school and college plays and in 1962 graduated from South Dakota State with a major in agricultural journalism.

After working in Sioux City, Iowa, Kerr toured the Midwest applying for jobs. To save money, he said, he slept in parks and showered at YMCAs.

He joined Channel 6 in 1964, when KMTV-Channel 3 had another South Dakota boy - Tom Brokaw. Kerr became assistant farm-news director to Arnold Peterson (whose longevity record was 1952-82, followed by years of a part-time garden feature).

In 1971, Kerr rose to anchorman of the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. news, a job he held for a long run - 20 years.

"Gary was a very fine anchor, but he was an even better street reporter," said Steve Murphy, retired WOWT news director. "That contributed to his role as anchor, because he understood what he was reading on the air."

Kerr hasn't tried to be cool, never made a priority of being "with it." That led to chagrin one evening as he went to commercial.

Folk singer Bob Dylan was in town for a concert, and Gary asked folks to stay tuned - but mispronounced Dylan's name as Dialin. After the commercial, Kerr smiled sheepishly and said: "You can stop calling now. I'm obviously not a Bob Dylan fan."

Last week he laughed at the memory of that, calling it one of his most embarrassing moments on the air. If that's one of the worst, Kerr did well.

Big Change
Kerr and his wife, Karren, a former national board member of the League of Women Voters, have been married 31 years. They raised sons Justin, 29, who lives in Chicago, and Aaron, 27, now in Minneapolis.

Gary is president of the Dundee-Memorial Park Association. The family has lived in the same house 26 years.

He doesn't make big changes lightly. He was hurt at being removed from the 5 p.m. co-anchor job, and said that's "basically" why he's leaving. But he said he has no rancor.

TV news is competitive, and there aren't a lot of 59-year-olds in anchor chairs. Not everyone leaves those jobs happily, such as Carol Schrader, who angrily departed KETV-Channel 7 in 1996 after 16 years as an anchor.

Kerr has had quite a career. He interviewed a former Iran hostage in West Germany, an Omaha veteran of D-Day on Omaha Beach and Sen. Bob Kerrey as a presidential candidate in New Hampshire.

The newscaster was such a local icon that a comedy troupe once performed a play titled, "Gary Kerr Almost Mentioned Us on the 6 O'Clock News."

After taking three or four months off work, Kerr said, he'll figure out something else to do - so to speak, a new station in life.

Gary Kerr never tried to be someone he wasn't. He put on his suit and suspenders every day and went to work.

Yes, he has aged, but his philosophy of news coverage is ageless: "Get it right and be fair."

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