Early life and education Born in
New York City, the son of Mary and Walter Henning (his father spent 36 years as a New York City police detective), he was the oldest of six children. His younger brother is veteran college football and NFL coach Dan Henning. Henning graduated from
St. Peter's College in
Jersey City, New Jersey, and came to Boston in 1959 to get a Master's Degree at
Boston University.
Career While studying, he interned at
WGBH-TV (channel 2), where among his duties, he covered sports. But his heart was in news and politics. After two years at WGBH, he spent eight months in the Army. In 1964, he was hired at what was then known as
WNAC-TV (now
WHDH-TV) as a street reporter. He also began covering local and national elections, something he would become known for. By 1965, WNAC promoted him to news anchor, and he did the 6 pm and 11 pm newscasts. It was during this time that he began to gain the reputation as a dependable, accurate and savvy reporter who knows how to separate spin from fact. Henning left WNAC-TV in 1968, going to work for the
old WHDH-TV (now
WCVB-TV), Channel 5. Henning remained at Channel 5 till April 1977, when he returned to the anchor desk at Channel 7. While his reporting continued to win him praise, the ratings at WNAC-TV did not go up, and he was taken off the anchor desk and reassigned to other duties. Not long after that, in late June 1981, he decided to resign. At that time, media critic Robert MacLean of the
Boston Globe wrote that "It is acknowledged among his colleagues that Henning, a veteran Boston TV newsman, [is] perhaps one of the best street reporters in the history of Boston TV news..." Due to a non-compete clause in his contract, he remained off the air till January 1982, at which time he was hired by
WBZ-TV (Channel 4) to anchor the noon news. Henning spent the rest of his career working for WBZ, winning a number of awards in the process. In 1994, he was able to report on the success of his brother
Dan Henning, who was named the football coach at
Boston College. Meanwhile, after many years of anchoring, John stepped down from anchoring the noon news in May 1995, and WBZ-TV made him their senior correspondent, with a specialty in local and national politics. The veteran reporter also covered the
State House. Henning retired from full-time reporting in 2003, but continued to do commentary for WBZ-TV and
WBZ Radio, where he teamed up with another political commentator, Jon Keller, to do a feature called "Eye on Politics."
Death Henning was diagnosed with
myelodysplastic syndrome, a condition in which the
bone marrow does not produce enough blood cells, in November 2009. He underwent a
bone marrow transplant, but it was unsuccessful. Henning died on July 7, 2010, at
Massachusetts General Hospital from
leukemia complications at the age of 73. ==Awards==