Jessica Savitch

Jessica Beth Savitch (February 1, 1947 – October 23, 1983) was an American television journalist who was the weekend anchor of NBC Nightly News and daily newsreader for NBC News during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Savitch was one of the first women to anchor an evening network newscast alone, following in the footsteps of Marlene Sanders of ABC News and Catherine Mackin of NBC News. She also hosted PBS's public affairs program Frontline from its January 1983 debut until her death in a car crash the following October.

Savitch was known for her audience appeal and her skill as an on-camera news reader, although she drew criticism for her relative lack of journalism experience. Prior to joining NBC News, she was a popular local anchorwoman in Philadelphia and before that, while working at a Houston television station, she was the first female news anchor in the South.

Jessica Savitch was born on February 1, 1947, in Wilmington, Delaware. She was the eldest daughter of Florence (née Goldberger), a navy nurse, and David “Buddy” Savitch, who ran a clothing store. Her father was of Serbian Slavic and Jewish heritage and her maternal grandfather was of German and Russian Jewish heritage. Her maternal grandmother was of Italian American heritage and she was also Catholic.

Buddy Savitch suffered from nephritis, an incurable kidney disease. He died in 1959, when he was 33 and Jessica was 12. Her family then moved from Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, to Margate City, New Jersey. While attending Atlantic City High School, Savitch got a job co-hosting a rock show for teenagers on radio station WOND in Pleasantville; she soon became a newsreader and disc jockey for WOND as well. She was the first female disc jockey in the Pleasantville area.

Following her graduation from high school, Savitch attended Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York, as a communications major. She was an announcer for the college’s television station, WICB, and worked in radio at nearby Rochester's WBBF (now WROC-AM). There, she did voice-over commercial work, and became a popular top 40 disc jockey known as "Honeybee". She graduated from Ithaca College in 1968, but remained connected to the college, returning periodically to teach a mini-course on television news.

In 1969, Savitch was hired as an administrative assistant at WCBS, the CBS Radio flagship news station in New York City, where she also did freelance production work. WCBS refused to hire her as a reporter because she had no professional experience. With the permission of News Director Ed Joyce and the help of a three-person crew, Savitch used the WCBS-TV facilities to make a television audition tape and sent copies to hundreds of television stations around the country seeking an on-air position. This included all cities big enough to have all three networks. She received fewer than a dozen responses and only one job interview.

Despite her lack of broadcast news experience, Savitch was hired by KHOU-TV in Houston as the station's first female reporter. Dick John, the manager who hired her, said he did so because he was impressed with her ambition as well as her copywriting and speaking skills. When Savitch arrived at KHOU, she was the only female working in the news department other than one secretary; colleagues helped her learn the basics of her job. Because KHOU was non-union, she participated in many aspects of production as well as reporting on camera. A few months after joining KHOU, Savitch auditioned for and won a weekend anchor shift, becoming the first female news anchor in the South and beginning to develop the formal, mannered style of news delivery for which she later became known. Her report on a train derailment and fire received national exposure on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.

In November 1972, Savitch joined KYW-TV, then the NBC affiliate (now CBS O&O) in Philadelphia, as a general assignment reporter and weekend anchor under a five-year contract.