Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.

I'm Jesse Thorn, it's Bullseye.

Jim Lair died a few weeks ago. He was 85.

He of course hosted PBS's NewsHour. He was an anchor in public broadcasting for well over 35 years.

He moderated a dozen presidential debates. With his Texas accent he was affable and charming,

but he was also incisive and unwavering when he needed to be.

He was a giant in the world of journalism, and particularly in the world of public broadcasting.

When I talked to him in 2010, he'd just written a sort of mystery novel.

Yes, he also wrote over 20 novels. The book I talked to him about was called Super.

It was set in the early 1950s aboard the Super Chief, the legendary train that ran through the American Midwest and Southwest.

Anyway, let's go to my apartment where I recorded an interview with the late great Jim Lair.

I know that you went to junior college, got an associate's degree before you went to four-year school.

My mom's a junior college professor. I find that often people who go to JC because they're taking some unusual path.

It's rare for someone to go to JC because they're just doing two years here and then two years there.

That was the plan all along. What led you? What was your path?

The reason I went to JC to my junior college was because we couldn't afford to go to the University of Texas.

I had to go to work. The junior college in Victoria, for $40, I could go to school the whole year.

$40. I took this job working in the bus depot, worked eight hours a day at night.

I also was editor of the newspaper, wrote and edited every story that was in the newspaper.

I wrote the editorials in addition to the news stories. I took it to the local newspaper and they printed it.

I came back to the campus and handed it out to all 320 of my fellow and sister students.

Anyhow, it was a marvelous experience. It never occurred to me that I would not eventually go to college and finish and get a degree and get a journalism degree and be a writer and be an earned as a family member or an earn a pile or one of those people.

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