Edith Carter

Edith Carter

NORTH EGREMONT Edith Carter, the pianist in a girls' band who upgraded through a succession of positions at CBS to become an important element within CBS News during the years when it enjoyed being referred to as The Cream Of The Tiffany Network, died on March 19, 2010, at her home in North Egremont. The cause was general decline. Mrs. Carter was one of the first people in broadcast-television to recognize that the shelf-life of natural pearls cannot be improved by waving around corporately-generated excessive comparisons.

The youngest child of Michela and Antonio Mosca, an industrial engineer, she was born in Mount Vernon, N.Y. While working in Manhattan and continuing her education at night, she was plucked from CBS' Accounting Department to become executive secretary, first, to Theodore H. White, then to Eric Sevareid, and eventually to "Uncle Walter" Cronkite.

Although "non-talent' does not normally appear on Tiffany Quality airwaves, Edith did. But only because it was essential to the continuance of America. At some point in Cronkite's stint anchoring the stream of reports that preceded the newsman's staggering announcement that President Kennedy had just died, the video-director freaked. It was a historic split-second in the life of the nation. The video-director was faced with the problem that even Cronkite's famous downrightness required a certain amount of Tiffanyesque defiance if it were not to become just another clod on a terrain of terror. But he also had to be careful not to let a camera transmit hysteria by catching a glimpse of someone who was reacting as if there were a crocodile in the Coke-machine. With his options closing and Cronkite choking, the director had the anchor-camera pan to the left and focus on the expression of sad concern on the triangular face of the young woman who was leaning forward pushing reports along the long axis of the anchor desk.

The Tiffany Network was now taking shelter in the cosmic appropriateness of an Italian-American's capacity to swim in Greek levels of tragedy. In the movies this is probably know as Neapolitan Pathos. But even though the many shots of Edith were later wiped from the tape, they are unforgettable. She looked as she poked the ever-more fatal news along as if her soul was the ejected version of the cartridge Oswald fired.

While Edith didn't know until The Three-Day Bill Paley Resusitation Feast was over that her image had been repeatedly transmitted, her reaction was that if she was the best The Tiffany Network could do in a lethal clinch. She had better get out of there while the going was good. She felt she should go find some place where the suits were not and where she could reorient herself among non-echo-chamber-voiced ordinary folk.

The only ones who said, "Yes!!!." to her were Mike Wallace and Uncle Walter. Wallace was known to be a major manic-depressive, and Uncle Walter was simpatico because he wanted to go yachting and play ham-radio. When he said, "South Egremont," she changed it to "North Egremont."

After settling there, Edith wrote regular and random columns for three regional papers. Subsequently, she joined ABC Leisure Magazines in Great Barrington, as a contributor to an associate-editor of a group of audio periodicals that willy-nilly promoted every branch of music. Eventually she became the editor of the hardcover classical-music reference Records In Review.

After retiring from The ABC Leisure Group, she sat down at home and produced a syndicated-column "Women Making It".

Mrs. Carter is survived by her husband, Alan F. Carter, of North Egremont, as well as by three nephews and three nieces, and to a minor extent by broadcast TV.

Those who wish may make donations in her memory to HospiceCare of the Berkshires through FINNERTY & STEVENS FUNERAL HOME, 426 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA 01230, who is caring for the arrangements. Remembrances, memories and reflections may be sent to the family through www.finnertyandstevens.com.