R.I.P.: Bill Plante, CBS News Journalist

Bill Plant - 1989

William "Bill" Plante, one of the longest-serving White House broadcast journalists in history, died of respiratory failure on Wednesday, according to his family. The award-winning CBS correspondent was 84 years old and lived in Washington, D.C., according to CBSNews.

Plante retired from CBS News as senior White House correspondent in 2016 after 52 years with the news division. He served four tours in Vietnam – with award-winning reporting on the fall of Saigon and Cambodia – covered the civil rights movement, all the presidential elections from 1968 to 2016, and was the anchor of the "CBS Sunday Night News" from 1988 to 1995.

"He was brilliant, as a reporter and as a human being," said 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl, who covered the White House with Plante for 10 years. "There wasn't anything Bill didn't excel at in our profession: he was a gifted writer, a first-class deadline maker and a breaker of major stories. He'll be remembered for his reports from the White House lawn, his booming voice that presidents always answered and his kind heart."

Plante was a CBS News White House correspondent for 35 years during the administrations of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama and covered the State Department during the administration of George H.W. Bush.  He was known for his baritone voice, which he used to launch questions from afar.