Charity recipient repays long-ago kindness

Malone, N.Y. — Ruth Buck never forgot the act of kindness that improved her eyesight 70 years ago.

So she recently sent a $100 check to her former upstate New York hometown as repayment for the glasses she received as a 13-year-old student struggling to read what the teacher wrote on the blackboard. Buck still doesn’t know who requested her glasses.

Malone Town Clerk Susan Hafter recently came upon the card and check.

“I thought, ‘What in the world is this?’ Then I read the note and thought it was so sweet,” Hafter said.

Hafter said the town decided to give the money to the Lions Club for its glasses program, a move welcomed by Buck.

Cronkite to receive Good Neighbor Award

Kansas City, Mo. — Journalist and Missouri native Walter Cronkite, 87, will receive the 2004 Harry S. Truman Good Neighbor Award in May.

Cronkite, who was the anchorman and managing editor of the CBS Evening News for nearly 20 years, was selected “because of his lifelong commitment and dedication to the high ideas of truth in broadcasting,” said Karl Zobrist, president of the award foundation.

The award will be presented May 7 as part of the Truman Foundation’s annual luncheon.