(Photos by Kevin Harkins)
It was Saturday, June 5, 2004, and the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan had just passed away. And with his passing, came the news that Barbara Walters, slated to be the Middlesex Community College Celebrity Forum speaker just TWO NIGHTS LATER was going to have to cancel her visit to Lowell, as ABC news was summoning her to the news desk to anchor their coverage.
The team at MCC led by then-President Carole Cowan hastily assembled Sunday morning to figure out how they were going to reschedule the visit by the pioneer of women’s journalism globally. Walters was also a close friend of Reagan’s wife Nancy, and therefore had a two-fold impact from the breaking news.
Just as the cancellation emails were about to be sent though, Walters’ agent contacted Niki Tsongas and Dennis Malvers at MCC – two of the drivers behind the Celebrity Forum event – and said because Reagan was getting a State Funeral days later in the week, Walters would still be able to attend her visit to the Mill City.
And so on Monday, June 7, the preeminent woman in global journalism, who led the way for so many other journalists to follow, arrived late in the afternoon to the college’s newly-opened Federal Building at 50 Kearney Square for a private party with donors before heading next door to the Lowell Memorial Auditorium to speak before a packed house.
That visit to Lowell was recalled by many this weekend as news broke of Walters’ passing at the age of 93.
Former President Cowan recalls how Walters spent much of the dinner asking her questions about her rise to the presidency of the college, as well as questions about the city and Cowan’s family.
With a surprise guest during dinner – MCC Theater Faculty Karen Oster playing the role of Eloise at the Plaza – Walters got dinner and a show, as well as the opportunity to meet with many leaders from Greater Lowell.
Over at the auditorium – the college’s sixth Celebrity Forum, Walters entered the hall to There is Nothing Like a Dame from the film South Pacific, and as soon as she got to the front of the packed floor of seats – accompanied by ye author on her right arm – she started kicking up her legs and immediately made the transition into celebrity performance mode.
Walters, who had spent decades as the face of ABC news, and had helped launch such news programs as 20/20 and most recently at the time, the View, told the crowd some of the travails of being a woman trying to break into a field predominantly helmed by men – one of them, Walter Cronkite, was the college’s first Celebrity Forum speaker in 1999.
Walters fielded questions from the audience and was engaging and energized by the crowd’s excitement. The toughest question, however, came at the end, from President Cowan herself, when she asked Walters one of the trademark questions that had been interwoven into countless of Walters’ own interviews – if she were a tree, what kind of tree would she be.
Walters was flattered that someone finally turned the tables on her and asked her the question which sometimes led to insightful revelations from her interviewees. She then declared she would be a maple, with her leaves spread wide and far to the sky.
For that one night in 2004, the maple tree shone in the spotlight and brought a true pioneer and trailblazer for women’s journalism to the Mill City. Rest in Peace, Barbara. Now Katherine Hepburn can break out the one skirt she promised she would wear to Walters funeral in another of Walters’ most memorable interviews.
