About Don Farmer
& Chris Curle

Don Farmer and Chris Curle had careers in the news business -– television, radio and print — for a combined total of ninety-nine years, from the headline events and back rooms of world politics to the front lines of wars and social revolutions.

They met in a TV newsroom in Houston, Texas. She was a reporter/anchor at KTRK-TV, the ABC station there. He was there on assignment in his role as southern bureau chief for ABC News, based in Atlanta.

They married two years later, just in time to move to London, where Don was a key correspondent in the network’s primary European bureau. They also lived for several years in West Germany, where Don was ABC’s bureau chief and correspondent.

During this period, Chris covered international news for radio and print in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Don’s coverage abroad sent him to war and civil strife in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia, including Vietnam and Cambodia. He also covered the civil rights movement in the US, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s historic movement, Dr. King’s assassination and the violent aftermath in several American cities.

Don covered the unsuccessful presidential campaigns of several men named George — Wallace, McGovern and Romney — and one very successful George, the forty-first president.

For five years, Don covered the US House of Representatives and the US Senate as a congressional correspondent for ABC News.

At that time, Chris anchored newscasts and a live “magazine” show, on the ABC TV station in Washington DC, WJLA, interviewing and reporting on the capital’s movers and shakers.

Among her favorites were Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Bob Hope, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Rev. Billy Graham, actor James Earl Jones and wildlife expert Jim Fowler, who brought some exotic critters with him to a live, on-air interview.

When Ted Turner created CNN, he hired Chris and Don to be among that all-news network’s “pioneer” on-air news anchors. During their two-hour, live “Take Two” daily program on CNN, they interviewed thousands of interesting people, many of whom are world famous.

Some of their more memorable conversations were with presidents, prime ministers, first ladies, generals, ambassadors, potentates and celebrities in the worlds of sports, Hollywood and Broadway.

One of Don’s favorite assignments was his conversation with The Beatles – all four of them – after John Lennon had created a firestorm by remarking in 1966 that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus.

Don and Chris also anchored the news for the ABC TV station in Atlanta, WSB-TV, where their coverage included covering stories in such interesting places as Iceland, Honduras, Saudi Arabia, the Galapagos Islands, Africa and the reunited Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Chris and Don continued their news careers when they retired from TV to Marco Island, Florida. They wrote for several newspapers in Atlanta and in Southwest Florida and hosted their own weekend radio show for Southwest Florida.

When Don passed away in 2021, they had been married 49 years. Chris now lives in Naples FL.