1943-1983
Television News Anchor

Recognized Personality.

When Jessica Savitch died in 1983 she was one of the most recognized news personalities in America and a frequent anchorwoman for NBC Nightly News. Yet few Americans knew of the personal problems that plagued her until reports and biographies began to appear after her death. Her life was a tragic illustration of the stresses that can accompany celebrity in the competitive television industry.

Beginnings.

Savitch was raised in New Jersey, the daughter of a clothing merchant whose untimely death traumatized the girl as a teenager. She began working for a local radio station while a sophomore in high school and majored in communications at Ithaca College in New York. Savitch gained her first television experience on the campus station in the mid 1960s; from the start she showed an affinity for the camera that promised a bright future in the...