If your money was on Andy Rooney, you make the weirdest bets.

Legendary newsman Mike Wallace had announced plans to retire from CBS’ 60 Minutes.

The confrontational Wallace, 87, said he would leave the show at the end of the current season this spring, but would remain on the payroll as a correspondent.

Wallace helped build 60 Minutes into one of the most respected news shows on television. He has been with the show since its inception in 1968.

“I’ve often replied, when asked, ‘I’ll retire when my toes turn up.’ Well, they’re just beginning to curl a trifle, which means that, as I approach my 88th birthday, it’s become apparent to me that my eyes and ears, among other appurtenances, aren’t quite what they used to be,” he said in a statement. “And the prospect of long flights to wherever in search of whatever are not quite as appealing.”
He added that he would be “available, when asked, for whatever chore CBS …. (has) in mind for me.”

Wallace has interviewed everyone from Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy to Mikhail Baryshnikov and Barbra Streisand.






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