Kriti Mehrotra
If there’s only one way we can ever describe commentator, journalist, and former national news anchor Daniel “Dan” Rather Jr., it has to be as an unwavering truth seeker as well as a patriot. That’s because, as explored in Netflix’s ‘Rather,’ this man has given over seven decades to reporting despite many ups and downs solely to always serve the public with all sides of a story. It thus comes as no surprise his sign-off for a brief period long ago Courage means a lot to him, yet the one he has with his family today shows who he really is — LNF, aka Love Never Fails.
Who is Dan Rather’s Family?
It was back when Texas native Dan was just kickstarting his career by serving as a sports jockey for a local radio station that he first came across J ane Goebel, only to quickly fall in love. “First time I saw her [at our workplace],” he candidly conceded in the aforementioned original, “I know it’s cliche but it’s true, it was ‘Wow. She has such a winning smile.’ Everything about her got my immediate attention. One thing developed into another and I finally asked her out,” following which most of their Saturday date nights were spent in the newsroom since he worked all the time.
Dan thus got down on one knee for Jane not long after, resulting in them blissfully tying the knot in 1957 before welcoming two loving children into this world: Robin Rather and Danjack Rather. However, considering he landed a spot at CBS in New York in 1962, his kids’ upbringing wasn’t ordinary in any way, shape, or form — he loved them, yet he rarely got to spend time with them. The entire brood did relocate to the East Coast so as to be together, but it still put a strain on their interpersonal connections since the journalist often traveled to report on significant global matters.
“The first year I was with CBS News, I was home 41 days out of the year,” Dan recently said in an exclusive to People. “41 days out of the year. Very hard to hold a marriage and a family together then.” Thankfully, though, his wife Jean was absolutely committed to making it work, so she took on everything on her fighting heart and spirit to ensure he could pursue his dreams without regrets. “Maybe the saving grace was … [that] when I was home, I tried to hit the off switch. I tried to make every hour count with my children… They grew up with it. And again, all credit to Jean.”
Dan actually continued, “The toughest times, besides [when I was covering] Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights era when I was away from home all those days, was going to Vietnam where Jean — not to be overly dramatic about it — but she knew I might not come back. We both knew that. When I started, I was only going to go for a fairly short time. But the war was exploding. It was expanding. So you don’t leave a story like that.” Even their kids knew this to an extent, especially as they weren’t protected from what was transpiring in the world; plus, he sent them a lot of postcards saying the same thing: “War is hell. Love, Dad.”
“As a young girl, you understand that’s dangerous but at the same time, he always did that,” Robin expressed in the original production. “I never knew a time when he wasn’t doing that. My mother didn’t shield us from what he was doing. I have a lot of memories of [seeing] my dad [on tv] with him crouched down and bullets everywhere.” She then revealed, “I really, really missed him. I didn’t really have a perspective on his work,” which understandably gradually changed as she grew older. She’s hence really proud to call Dan her father, and we can only imagine that her younger brother and their own respective families feel the exact same way.
Dan Rather’s Family Continues to Support Him
Starting with Jean, we’re happy to report that she and Dan have been married for more than 66 years as of writing, making it clear they still have an incredible bond as well as understanding between them. As for their actual whereabouts, it appears as if the couple has maintained homes in both Austin, Texas, and New York City, New York, so they seemingly usually split their time between the two to be with their kids.
We specify their children because while Robin is based in Austin at the moment, Danjack is a true New York resident — she’s a community activist plus environmentalist, whereas he’s an assistant district attorney. From what we can tell, the former is the CEO of Collective Strength, a consulting firm through which she serves as a nature-based solutions plus sustainability expert and facilitator for clients in all sectors.
Robin, a proud mother with a Sociology degree from Tufts University, has previously also held the positions of Senior Executive and VP in the global tech industry, plus been the COO for a non-profit carbon market registry. As for her brother Danjack, a relatively private man, he has apparently been associated with the District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan for over three decades and has an excellent reputation in his field of work.
“Dad and I have a sign-off, which is LNF [Love Never Fails],” Robin said in the documentary. “As a journalist, he’s all about courage. As a father, he’s all about the love, all the time. The absolute unconditional love.” Following this, her son, journalist turned Harvard law student Martin Rather, added, “I want my grandfather to be remembered as someone who did his absolute best to represent the ideals of this country.”
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