Radio broadcaster and newspaper journalist Ray Henle was born on June 10, 1899, in Davenport, Iowa. After study at the University of Illinois (1918-1921), he worked as a reporter for the Ft. Madison (Iowa) Democrat and the Associated Press bureaus in Des Moines, Iowa, and Pierre, South Dakota. In 1926 the AP transferred Henle to its Washington, D.C. bureau, and for the remainder of his career he was primarily known for his coverage of the Washington scene. During this long career he was to travel extensively with Presidents and presidential candidates and to become personally acquainted with many political and diplomatic leaders. In addition, assignments took him to the inaugurations of Presidents Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson; the coronation of Elizabeth II; the birth of the United Nations; the funeral of President Roosevelt; and numerous other important national and international news events.
Henle severed his association with the AP in 1929 to become capital correspondent for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Toledo Blade. In 1944, after 18 years in newspaper journalism, he switched to radio broadcasting for the American Broadcasting Company. In April, 1946, he began Congress Today, a program of informed political commentary, which was heard daily over WOL, John and Gardiner Cowles' Mutual Broadcasting System outlet in the capital.
Henle began that part of his career for which he was best known in September, 1947, when he became editor-in-chief of Three Star Extra, a daily, fifteen-minute program of news and comment sponsored by the Sun Oil Company. Although the program was carried by NBC, its ties with the network's news operation were limited, and the show, sometimes referred to as “the newspaper of the air,” boasted its own, independent, news-gathering staff. During its early years, the award-winning program (DuPont Award, 1951, and Freedoms Foundation medal, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1959) won a reputation for incisive journalism. The program continued on the air until Henle's retirement in 1965, thus establishing a national record for continuous news broadcasting.
In 1955 Herbert Hoover personally selected Henle to interview him for the NBC telecast A Conversation with Herbert Hoover, the only authorized television documentary about the former President's private life. This interview won the 1956 Freedoms Foundation Medal of Honor and was cited as the program of the year by the National Association for Better Radio and Television.
Upon his retirement from active broadcasting in 1965, Henle became a consultant to the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace and the Hoover Presidential Library, and he served as director of the Herbert Hoover Oral History Program. In addition, he was a member of the board of the Free Society Association and the National Symphony Orchestra and a member of many professional and social organizations. During their residence in Washington, D.C. Henle and his wife Marion entertained widely and were among the best known couples in the social whirl. After his retirement Henle resided in Marco Island, Florida, where he was founder and editor of the Marco Island Eagle. He died in West Palm Beach on January 21, 1974.
