Carolina Curious: What's known about Edward R. Murrow's roots in Guilford County?

With the new play, "Good Night, and Good Luck," war correspondent Edward R. Murrow is back in the public dialogue. George Clooney portrays the pioneering broadcast journalist in his Broadway debut.

WFDD’s Sheila Thrower pointed out that Murrow is originally from Guilford County. In this week’s edition of Carolina Curious, Bethany Chafin looks into his roots and early days in the Piedmont.

The first thing to know is that Edward R. Murrow wasn’t always an Edward.

“When he was born, his parents named him Egbert Murrow ... which he didn't like, and later changed it to the nicer sounding Edward R. Murrow,” says Curator of Community History at the Greensboro History Museum, Glenn Perkins.

According to Perkins, Murrow was born on a large family farm in 1908 in a place called Polecat Creek, just south of Greensboro.

“The family was part of the Quaker community there in a place called Centre Friends Meeting.”

Perkins says they had been in the area since the 1700s.

“Murrow later recalled hunting rabbits and, you know, traipsing around the farm, although the family didn't live there very long, because they moved to Washington state when Murrow was just about six years old.”

While we don’t necessarily associate Murrow’s legacy with North Carolina, one of his relatives did make a mark on this region.

“His grandfather was a Republican state senator in the late 1800s and was one of the legislators responsible for approving NCA&T, which was North Carolina Agricultural and Mechanical College at the time,” says Perkins. 

For those who want to learn more about Edward R. Murrow, you can head to the Greensboro History Museum, where you’ll find a bust of the journalist outside the building in the Mary Lynn Richardson Park.

“And then inside the museum, we have Murrow's Peabody Award from 1951 for one of his series, and also a war correspondent cap that he got made for him in London and probably had during World War II,” Perkins says.