LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Fred Graham was born in Little Rock on October 6, 1931, and lived in Texarkana, Graham studied at Yale, Vanderbilt and Oxford. He went on to write for the New York Times and helped launch Court TV.
Graham attended Yale University, graduating with a BA in 1953 and joined the U.S. Marines, where he served as both an infantry and intelligence officer serving in Japan and Korea.
Graham then attended law school at Vanderbilt University, from which he received an LLB in 1959. He then attended Oxford University in England as a Fulbright scholar and earned a Diploma of Law.
While covering topics from the FBI, to abortion rights, to the Watergate Scandal, Graham also served as the substitute anchor on several CBS news programs, later helping launch Court TV as its chief anchor and managing editor beginning with the inaugural broadcasts in 1991, hosting both daily trial coverage and the analysis program Open Court, according to the Central Arkansas Library System.
Graham helped shape the nation's understanding of the legal landscape of the time from covering the Pentagon Papers case, abortion rights and the Watergate scandal. He won numerous awards for his work, including a Peabody and several Emmy's.
He died Saturday due to complications of Parkinson's disease. Graham was 88-years-old.