Legendary Newswoman Barbara Walters Has died at the age of 93.
ABC first broke the news describing her as the trailblazing television news broadcaster and longtime ABC News anchor and correspondent who shattered the glass ceilings and became a dominant force in an industry once dominated by men.
Walters joined ABC News in 1976, becoming the first female anchor on an evening news program. Three years later, she became a co-host of “20/20,” and in 1997, she launched “The View.”
In a career that spanned five decades, Walters won 12 Emmy awards, 11 of those while at ABC News.
She made her final appearance as a co-host of “The View” in 2014, but remained an executive producer of the show and continued to do some interviews and specials for ABC News.
“I do not want to appear on another program or climb another mountain,” she said at the time. “I want instead to sit on a sunny field and admire the very gifted women — and OK, some men too — who will be taking my place.”
Barbara Jill Walters was born in Boston on Sept. 25, 1929, to Dena and Louis “Lou” Walters. Her father worked in show business as a booking agent and nightclub producer, and discovered comedians Fred Allen and Jack Haley, who would go on to star as the Tin Man in the classic film “The Wizard of Oz.”
Growing up around celebrities taught a young Barbara a lesson that she relied upon throughout her career.
“I would see them onstage looking one way and offstage often looking very different. I would hear my parents talk about them and know that even though those performers were very special people, they were also human beings with real-life problems,” Walters said in a 1989 interview with the Television Academy of Arts & Sciences. “I can have respect and admiration for famous people, but I have never had a sense of fear or awe.”
In her 2008 memoir “Audition,” Walters revealed that she got her ambition to succeed from her older sister, Jacqueline, who was born developmentally disabled.
“Her condition also altered my life,” Walters wrote. “I think I knew from a very early age that at some point Jackie would become my responsibility. That awareness was one of the main reasons I was driven to work so hard. But my feelings went beyond financial responsibility.
“Much of the need I had to prove myself, to achieve, to provide, to protect, can be traced to my feelings about Jackie. But there must be something more, the ‘Something’ that makes one need to excel,” she added. “Some may call it ambition. I can live with that. Some may call it insecurity, although that is such a boring, common label, like being called shy, that means little. But as I look back, it feels to me that my life has been one long audition — an attempt to make a difference and to be accepted.”
“No one was more surprised than I,” she said of her on-air career. “I wasn’t beautiful, like many of the women on the program before me, [and] I had trouble pronouncing my r’s.”
In her memoir, Walters wrote that she had dark hair, a sallow complexion and was often told she was skinny. She said her parents’ term of endearment for her was “Skinnymalinkydin.”
In 1976, Walters found a new home on ABC’s “Evening News,” making history as the first female co-anchor of an evening news program.
RIP Barbara Walters…a true journalist with an impeccable career. pic.twitter.com/2MlBkK8B36
— Sharene Lee (@MsShareneLee) December 31, 2022
and
“I’m quick to check a bitch if she’s outta line” – Barbara Walters quoting Nicki Minaj
An iconic moment in pop culture history… RIP to the legend, Barbara Walters ?️ pic.twitter.com/TMuR6duHP4
— Rap Alert (@rapalert1OO) December 31, 2022
and
This Barbara Walters interview with Denzel in the 90s was a great one. pic.twitter.com/NIjpaddiJ4
— Steven J. Gaither (@stevenjgaither) December 31, 2022
and
“This is what I tell, especially young women, fight the big fights. Don’t fight the little fight. Be the first one in, be the last one out. Do your homework, choose your battles…Fight the big fight.” #BarbaraWalters pic.twitter.com/eGbPto7Rrv
— Sari Beth Rosenberg (@saribethrose) December 31, 2022
May she rest in peace.
