Katie Couric's Father Dies

Longtime print journalist John Couric, who advised his daughter Katie to go into broadcasting because it seemed more promising, died after a battle with Parkinson’s disease. The World War II vet was 90, The Washington Post reports.

Katie Couric, former anchor of the “CBS Evening News” and co-host of NBC’s “Today Show,” confirmed the death. In a 1991 interview with the Post, John Couric said of his famous daughter, “I encouraged her to go into broadcasting because I thought it was more promising than print, having been in print myself.”

The native of Brunswick, Ga., received a journalism degree from Mercer University in Macon, Ga., and served in the Navy during World War II in the Mediterranean and Pacific, participating in the invasion of Sicily and the campaigns for Tarawa, Peleliu, the Philippines and Okinawa, the Post reported.

After the war he worked with the Atlanta Constitution and then United Press, first in Georgia and then in the wire service’s Washington bureau. He moved into public relations in 1957 working for trade associations and later the Food and Drug Administration before retiring in 1985.

In addition to Katie Couric, survivors include his wife of 67 years, Elinor Hene Couric of Arlington, Va., and children Clara Batchelor of Brookline, Mass., and John M. Couric Jr. of Arlington. His oldest child, Virginia State Sen. Emily Couric, died in 2001. He also leaves behind nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, the Post reported.