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Larry LeSueur papers

 Collection
Identifier: MS2307

Scope and Contents

This collection contains typewritten scripts, correspondence, articles, journals, audiocassettes and audio reels, and artifacts documenting LeSueur's 40-year careeer as a radio correspondent. Radio scripts and newspaper clippings include LeSueur's vivid accounts of war, written while he was stationed abroad from 1939 through the end of World War II. Other scripts, delivered while LeSueur was a White House correspondent, feature his first-person descriptions of business at the highest levels of government. In addition, audiocassettes and audio reels include some of LeSueur's broadcasts, as well as oral histories, interviews, and memories of D-Day. The material dates from 1935 to 2003.

Dates

  • Creation: 1935-2003
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1940 - 1984

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Some material may be copyrighted or restricted. It is the patron's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other case restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the collections.

Biographical / Historical

Laurence Edward "Larry" LeSueur was a Peabody-award winning radio correspondent best known as one of "Murrow's Boys," a band of international correspondents assembled in Europe before and during World War II by Edward R. Murrow. He was born in New York in 1909, and began his career as a print journalist for United Press in the 1930s. He left New York for London in 1939, introduced himself to Murrow, and secured a position with him on the CBS Radio Network. He reported from the Russian front in 1941 and 1942, with a weekly radio broadcast called "An American in Russia," and wrote a book on the experience called Twelve Months that Changed the World, published in 1943.

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, LeSueur was one of the first journalists to land at Normandy and report back news of the battle to Americans at home. He covered Europe throughout the war, including broadcasting news of the liberation of Paris. After the war, LeSueur continued broadcasting for CBS Radio as White House correspondent, most notably from the Paris Peace Conference. He left CBS in 1963 but continued covering the White House, for Voice of America, until his retirement in 1984. He died on February 5, 2003 at the age of 93.

Extent

10 Linear Feet (17 document boxes, 3 flat boxes, and 1 film)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Laurence Edward "Larry" LeSueur was a Peabody-award winning radio correspondent best known as one of "Murrow's Boys," a band of international correspondents assembled in Europe before and during World War II by Edward R. Murrow for CBS. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, LeSueur was one of the first journalists to land at Normandy and report back news of the battle to Americans at home. This collection contains typewritten scripts, correspondence, articles, journals, audiocassettes and audio reels, and artifacts documenting LeSueur's 40-year career as a radio correspondent. Radio scripts and newspaper clippings include LeSueur's vivid accounts of war, written while he was stationed abroad from 1939 through the end of World War II. Other scripts, delivered while LeSueur was a White House correspondent, feature his first-person descriptions of business at the highest levels of government. The material dates from 1935 to 2003.

Arrangement

Organized into six series: Radio scripts, Subject files, Notebooks and journals, Audiovisual, Artifacts, and Clippings.

Physical Location

Materials are stored off-site, and will require additional retrieval time. Please contact the Special Collections Research Center for more information.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Amy LeSueur, 2012 (2012.059).

Subject

Source

Title
Guide to the Larry LeSueur papers, 1935-2003
Status
Completed
Author
Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University
Date
2012
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University Repository

Contact:
George Washington University Gelman Library
2130 H Street NW
Washington DC 20052 United States of America