When I saw him the day after the plane and helicopter crash at Reagan I knew exactly why he was in town.
"Lester Holt?"
He turned, looked down at me and smiled, "Yes."
"I'm a big fan," I said.
He thanked me, I smiled, and left him. I have never been able to ask a celebrity for an autograph or picture.
I immediately regretted it, but I also knew he was lost in his own thoughts at that moment. He was standing outside the bodega at DC Union Station. Days later he made news with the announcement of his departure from NBC Nightly News. Suddenly, his quiet introspection, gazing outside an open store, made sense. I believe in that moment his quasi-retirement flooded his thoughts.
There is no way this was his choice. TV lore is ripe with stories of the old dog favored for the younger model (Tom Llamas, in this case). But Lester is a musician at heart, so when the bosses came to him and said numbers were down, he knew just how to play this. A classy exit.
In his decade on the show many of us have experienced significant life shifts. For me this was the double whammy of 2018 - losing my mother unexpectedly but earning a long-sought master's at a British university. Seeing Holt each night was an anchor, only interspersed by my 15 months abroad, when Katty Kaye and Christian Frasier took his place.
I had been crazy about his predecessor, Brian Wiliams, but disappointed by his lapse in journalistic integrity. Holt was the ideal antidote. He interviewed a churlish, infuriating Trump, his successorfrom Scranton, and a host of other leaders, always remaining unflappable. It was fitting we met in DC.
Calm, steady, kind, and in his presence rather sequoia-esque. If Williams seemed schmoozy, Holt was genuine, the grown up boy-next-door.
I'm glad we met, Lester. And I don't need a picture. My memory is seared into my subconscious, much like your tag line, "Take care of yourself and each other." ***Photo: Gage Skidmore, Nov 4, 2019; Lester speaks with attendees at the Annual Cronkite Award Luncheon at the Sheraton Grand Phoenix in Phoenix.
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