Jessica Savitch

Journalist

Birthday February 1, 1947

Birth Sign Aquarius

Birthplace Kennett Square, PA

DEATH DATE Oct 23, 1983 (36)

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About

Remembered for anchoring New York's weekend edition of NBC Nightly News and for hosting the PBS news program Frontline, she is particularly notable as the first female anchor of a nationally-broadcast weekend news program.

Before Fame

After graduating from Ithaca College in New York, she worked briefly for Houston's KHOU-TV channel and for New York's WCBS-AM radio station.

Trivia

Tragically, she died in her mid-thirties as the result of a single-vehicle car accident that also killed New York Post executive Martin Fischbein.

Family Life

The child of Florence Goldberger and David Savitch, she spent her childhood in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In the early 1980s, she was briefly married to Mel Korn, followed by Donald Payne.

Associated With

She was portrayed by Sela Ward in the Lifetime movie Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story.