Who the F Is … TV Journalist Jessica Savitch?

Who she was: The bisexual Savitch, who died 30 years ago this week, was a TV reporter and anchor who broke new ground for women.

What she accomplished: Smart, ambitious, and yes, beautiful, Savitch was a pioneer for women in TV news, breaking barriers that, shockingly, existed not so long ago. In 1970 she became the first female news reporter for KHOU in Houston. During her one year there, she was promoted to anchor the Saturday night news, making her the first anchorwoman in all the South. In 1971 she moved to Philadelphia’s KYW, where she became the city’s first prime-time anchorwoman. Six years later, she landed at NBC News as Senate correspondent, and she also anchored a weekend newscast, making her the first woman to do so at the network.

But the “Golden Girl” had problems. Some thought she was in over her head as Senate correspondent, and she was moved to general assignment reporting. She was married twice; her first marriage ended in divorce, and her second husband committed suicide in August 1981, just six months after they wed. She had suffered a miscarriage two months earlier. She also reportedly developed a cocaine habit. One night in October 1983, she appeared confused on a broadcast. A few weeks later, on October 23, she spent a day with a friend, Martin Fischbein, in rural Pennsylvania, going antiquing and then out for dinner. They left a restaurant about 7:15 that rainy evening and were not seen alive again. Seven hours later, their bodies were pulled from a canal, which their car had flipped into.

In books published a few years after Savitch’s death, biographers detailed her bisexuality, a revelation that reviewers at the time called “lurid.” She would most likely find at least a bit more acceptance today, and she certainly paved the way for more acceptance of women in broadcast journalism. She won four Emmys, and scholarships have been endowed in her name at Ithaca College, which she attended, as well as Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania. “The scholarship awardees are her living legacy,” says JessicaSavitch.com, a website devoted to her career achievements.

Choice quote: “When I was a little girl in the 1950s, it would not have been possible for me to say, I want to be an anchorwoman when I grow up.”

To find out more: Savitch wrote an autobiography, Anchorwoman, published in 1982. Books about her include Golden Girl by Alanna Nash, which came out in 1988, and Almost Golden by Glenda Blair, from 1989. There was a TV movie, also titled Almost Golden, in 1995, with Sela Ward playing Savitch, and Michelle Pfeiffer played a character based (rather loosely) on her in the 1996 theatrical film Up Close and Personal. And you can read more about her here and here.