Charlie Rose honored by NC Press Association

Rose said he first honed his interviewing skills working in his father's country store in Warren Plains.

"To participate in the conversation, you had to ask questions. So, I really believe that what I do now had its beginnings in that very small crucible," he said.

After graduating from Henderson High School, Rose earned bachelor's and law degrees from Duke University.

"He was really interested in what you thought, who you were as a person," college roommate Dan Hill said. "As I look back on it, that was a wonderful quality that he had."

Rose quickly got into television broadcasting, working with Bill Moyers on PBS and later anchoring "CBS News Nightwatch." In 1991, he started his own interview show on PBS.

"That's the show that has defined me and has made me – given me the opportunity to do everything else," he said.

Twenty years later, CBS lured him back to co-anchor "CBS This Morning." He's also a correspondent on "60 Minutes."

"All of those things are a different talent level, I think, and take different skills, and he seems to come to all of them naturally," said Beth Grace, executive director of the N.C. Press Association.

"I always know that, when I go back to North Carolina, everybody there will tell me the truth and tell me what matters and help me understand that, whatever I have done, the roots of it began there," Rose said. "Never forget your roots."