Ex-UPI reporter Kuettner, 95, dies

BELLA VISTA, Ark., May 17 (UPI) -- Al Kuettner, who covered the U.S. civil rights movement as a UPI reporter, has died at the age of 95, a colleague said Sunday.

Kuettner died Saturday at Concordia Care Center in Bella Vista, Ark. He had been in declining health in recent months.

"He was one of the best reporters of his time, covering the civil rights movement day in and day out, always with an eye toward covering the story thoroughly and accurately, without bias or distortion," said Tobin Beck, former executive editor of United Press International. Beck edited Kuettner's book, "March to a Promised Land," published in 2006 by Capital Books.

Kuettner, an Atlanta native who grew up in a culture sharply separated by race, attended historically black Georgia State College, now Savannah State University. He worked at a weekly newspaper in Decatur, Ga., before joining United Press, which later became United Press International, in 1942.

He first met Martin Luther King Jr. in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955 at the start of the bus boycott prompted by Rosa Parks's refusal to give up her seat to a white rider.

Kuettner covered King's "I have a dream" speech in Washington in August 1963. Kuettner recalled in his book that King's speech had been fairly unremarkable until starting the "dream" section, which had not been included in the advance text given reporters.

"We had no time to look at the crowd's reaction, but it was unnecessary," Kuettner later wrote. "The reaction could be heard and felt like something visceral, now sweeping up almost in a sob from the depths of many hearts, making the long trek to Washington at last worthwhile for them."

Kuettner left UPI in 1968, moving on to Pace Magazine, the Cincinnati Post and Times-Star and the University of Cincinnati public information office before buying the Gravette, Ark., News Herald with his wife Helen in 1979.

They retired several years later and she died in 2007.

Kuettner is survived by a son and four grandchildren.