A bus of my own

"In A Bus of My Own, accomplished journalist, novelist and playwright Jim Lehrer dares that most daunting of literary challenges, the memoir - and succeeds brilliantly. From the public-address booth of a Texas bus depot to the nightly news, with plenty of adventures along the way, A Bus of My Own is a warm, funny, delightfully candid journey of reminiscence in the tradition of Russell Baker and Charles Kuralt." "Whether the subject is a hilarious NewsHour near-disaster or a personal crisis, Jimmy Charles Lehrer's saga makes terrific copy. His consuming passion for the great days of the intercity bus line, born out of his parents' attempts to found a Kansas bus line in 1946 with three mechanically exhausted vehicles named Betsy, Susie and Lena; his youthful dreams, losses and embarrassments; his picaresque career as a reporter interviewing murderers, con men, Cardinals and Elvis, plus so many dignitaries wandering through the airport that he became known as the only foreign correspondent in American journalism never to leave the city limits of Dallas; his entry into public television in 1970 with a cast of reporters that featured blacks, Hispanics, women with long hippie hair and men with beards ("Some people went crazy and red in the face just looking at us"); his wealth of family, friends and cohorts, such as Robin MacNeil, Eudora Welty and the inimitable Sticks Strahala; his failproof method to stop smoking (have a heart attack); his lifelong hunger to possess "a bus of my own"--All percolate with the candor and wit that are Jim Lehrer's trademarks." "A Bus of My Own is jam-packed with marvelous stories, memorable characters and pointed opinions about all kinds of things, among them journalistic ethics, back-roads America and the Kennedy assassination (to which Lehrer had an unusual front-row seat). It will have readers thinking, chortling, even getting misty-eyed from time to time. It is a pure delight."--Jacket.