I won’t make either of these anecdotes bigger than they are. They’re just about little moments, brief encounters, with two notable gentlemen who left us this week.

I’ll start with one that involved no words between us. It was back in 1982 when I was a producer for what was then known as CNN2, later Headline News.

It was a slow Sunday and I was struggling to find enough stories to fill out my rundown for my back-to-back 30-minute newscasts.

The deadline to get the thing done and hand it over to the writers was looming and I was feeling the pressure.

We often had visitors come through the newsroom and I noticed one of them standing a little too close to me, trying to look over at my computer terminal to see what I was doing.

He was a short, balding man. Very quiet, but apparently curious as to what I was furiously working on.

Honestly, it was distracting to me and I didn’t need a stranger’s enquiring eyes boring in at that moment.

Finally, he moved on and as the supervising producer walked by I asked who was that little bald guy hovering in my space.

“Oh, just a guy taking a tour,” the supervisor said with a hint of sarcasm. “His name is Robert Duvall….he’s an actor.”  

Yeah..just an actor. Robert, freakin’ Duvall..whose characters loved the smell of napalm in the morning and served the Godfather. Some little bald guy. Some incredible actor. Some clueless young producer who was so immersed in his own little task he missed the chance to have an actual word with one of the foremost actors of our time.

 Except, for those brief moments, he seemed to be aware of me, and interested in what I was doing. I’ll take the win, and the memory.

The second little story involved the late Rev. Jesse Jackson. It was around 1987. By then I had been elevated to a correspondent at CNN out of its southeast bureau, based in Atlanta.

I had interviewed Jackson once before very briefly and I doubted he’d ever remember me.  But he also hosted a program on CNN, so it was all in the family.

Long after that initial interview I was assigned to cover  Jackson and a group he led presenting aid to drought-stricken farmers near Greenville, South Carolina.

As he and his contingent arrived, I started to approach him to grab a few words.

But before I could get too far, Rev. Jackson gave me a look and a subtle hand signal that telegraphed two messages: “not quite yet,” and “don’t worry, we’re CNN brothers,”  but mostly, “back off.”

I quickly understood. Ever the media-savvy, and frankly, publicity-loving figure, Rev. Jackson and company staged an emotional photo op with the grateful farmers.

Once he was sure all the news crews got their shot, Jackson came over to me, smiled a little sheepishly and said, “thanks for getting the signal. Now, let’s talk.” And we did.

Yeah, sure, not giant stories, but little moments to recall related to a couple of disparate notables, and revel in how the privilege of being a journalist often presents the opportunity to  encounter some very special people. May they both rest in peace.