Activist and author Terkel dies at 96

Chicago: Studs Terkel captured the essence of Chicago in the pages of his best-selling oral histories, chronicling common people and celebrities alike.

Along the way he became an ageless master of listening and speaking, a broadcaster, activist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

Terkel died Friday at age 96.

"He found his home in Chicago and he found it in the gritty aspect of Chicago life," said Russell Lewis, chief historian at the Chicago History Museum.

"The ne'er-do-wells, the outcasts, the bums, all these people were people he was curious about."