William Madden Plante (January 14, 1938 – September 28, 2022) was an American journalist and correspondent for CBS News. He joined the network in 1964 and was noted for being the network's senior White House correspondent for over three decades. Early life and education Plante was born in Chicago on January 14, 1938. His father, Regis, was employed as a field engineer for a heating company; his mother, Jane (Madden), worked as a school administrator. Plante attended Loyola Academy in his hometown, graduating in 1955. It was around this time he was employed by a classical music radio station in Evanston, Illinois, his first experience with broadcasting. Plante studied business and humanities at Loyola University Chicago, earning a bachelor's degree in 1959. He dropped out of Chicago-Kent College of Law after a friend got him a job as assistant news director at WISN-TV. He was at the station for four years before being awarded a journalism fellowship by CBS to study political science at Columbia University. Career After completing his studies at Columbia, Plante started working for CBS News in June 1964 as a reporter and assignment editor. He was sent to South Vietnam later that year to report on the Vietnam War, the first of four tours as a correspondent. His final tour in 1975 saw him cover the fall of Phnom Penh and fall of Saigon, which earned his CBS News team the "Best Radio Spot News Reporting from Abroad" award from the Overseas Press Club. In March 1965, Plante went to Selma, Alabama and was there when state troopers assaulted marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in what was later dubbed "Bloody Sunday". He returned later that month to report on the Selma to Montgomery marches and interviewed Martin Luther King Jr. during the event. Plante was promoted to correspondent the following year and was posted to the network's Chicago bureau. He was there for ten years and reported on the 1966 riots in the city, protests at Ohio University, the strike by the United Auto Workers in 1970, and Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance five years later. During this time he also covered events overseas, including the state funeral of Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, which earned him two more Overseas Press Club awards for spot radio news. Plante moved to CBS' Washington bureau in December 1976. He was appointed Senior White House Correspondent