OTTAWA — ABC news anchor Peter Jennings was named to the Order of Canada just days before he died.

Jennings, a Canadian-born broadcaster who delivered the news to Americans over five decades, died Sunday from lung cancer. He was 67.

His children will likely accept the award on his behalf at a ceremony on some later date in Rideau Hall, said Randy Mylyk, a spokesman for Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson.

"It will never be worn by Peter but it will be a symbol that his country never forgot him as one of us,'' said Mylyk.

"He was never shy about talking about his Canadian roots to Americans. One of the last things he learned before his passing is that he had become a member of the Order of Canada. It was as if he were coming home -- that ultimate link to his own country. The loop was closed.''

His nomination to the order was submitted months before Jennings announced on the air in April that he had lung cancer. It was approved by the investiture committee, headed by Chief Justice Beverly McLaughlin, on June 29.

His name was then submitted to Clarkson for concurrence. The Governor General informed Jennings by letter. He accepted through his sister.

Broadcasting was the family business for Jennings. His father, Charles Jennings, was the first person to anchor a nightly national news program in Canada and later became head of the CBC's news division.

Peter Jennings had a Saturday morning radio show in Ottawa at age nine. He never completed high school or college, and began as a reporter at a radio station in Brockville, Ont. He quickly earned an anchor job at CTV.

Sent south to cover the Democratic national convention in 1964, the handsome, dashing correspondent was noticed by ABC's news president. Jennings was offered a reporting job and left Canada for New York.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Jennings took out U.S. citizenship after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington but he maintained his Canadian citizenship and returned to the Gatineau Hills of Quebec every summer.

Orders of Canada cannot be appointed posthumously. As is the practice, Jennings' award is dated to the day his nomination was approved by the committee.

Like Jennings, author Mordecai Richler was named a member of the Order of Canada just before he died in 2001, at age 70.