[2] His father, Wallace H. Kuralt Sr. was a social worker and his mother, Ina Bishop, was a teacher.

[3] In 1945, the family moved to Charlotte, North Carolina where his father became Director of Public Welfare in Mecklenburg County.

When he was 14 years old, Kuralt became one of the youngest radio announcers in the country, covering minor-league baseball games and hosting a music show.

Later, at Charlotte's Central High School, Kuralt was voted "Most Likely to Succeed" in his graduating class of 1951.

[2] He also had a starring role in a radio program called American Adventure: A Study of Man in The New World in the episode titled "Hearth Fire", which aired on August 4, 1955.

[2] He wrote "Charles Kuralt's People," a column that won an Ernie Pyle Award in 1956.

Young, good looking, full of poise and command, deep voiced and yet relaxed and not over-dramatic, he imparts a sense of authority and reliability to his task.

"[10] In 1961, he became CBS's Chief Latin American Correspondent, covering 23 countries from a base in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

[3][4][16] In 1967, Kuralt and a CBS camera crew spent eight weeks with Ralph Plaisted in his first attempt to reach the North Pole by snowmobile, which resulted in the documentary To the Top of the World and his book of the same name.

[17] He said, "I didn't like the competitiveness or the deadline pressure," he told the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, upon his induction into their Hall of Fame.

"[17] Tired of covering war stories, Kuralt proposed to his bosses a new project: "How about no assignments at all?

[4] Kuralt left the weekday broadcasts in March 1982, but continued to anchor Sunday Morning.

On April 3, 1994, he retired after 15 years as a host of Sunday Morning, and was replaced by Charles Osgood.

In early 1997, he signed on to host a syndicated, thrice-weekly, ninety-second broadcast, An American Moment, presenting what CNN called "slices of Americana".

He agreed to host a CBS cable broadcast show, I Remember, designed as a weekly, hour-long review of significant news from the three previous decades.

[4] Kuralt refused to alter his habits in favor of healthier ones; he ate unhealthy food, drank and smoked.

Kuralt mentioned Shannon and the building of the park — but not the nature of their relationship — in a book he published in 1990 chronicling his early life and journalistic career.