Barbara Walters became the first woman to co-anchor the morning news program TODAY in 1974. The iconic news journalist and host, who paved the way for women in broadcast journalism, died on Friday, December 30 at the age of 93.
Cindy Berger, a representative for Walters, shared in a statement, “Barbara Walters passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by loved ones. She lived her life with no regrets. She was a trailblazer not only for female journalists, but for all women.”
Walters talked about what it was like to start on the camera back in the early 70s while interviewing in 2000 with the Television Academy Fountain. She said, “I wasn’t a model, I wasn’t beautiful, I didn’t pronounce my Rs that well, I wasn’t an actress. I was none of the things that the ‘TODAY girl’ had been before, so it was sort of considered that I was still the TODAY reporter. And during those years, because I was able to write my own material, because I was able to go out and do interviews, there were barriers that I think I overcame.”
Before becoming an anchor for TODAY, Barbara Walters worked her way up through the ranks of reporters for TV news. She followed the first lady Jacqueline Kennedy to India and Pakistan in 1962, and she did extensive interviews with the likes of Grace Kelly after her marriage to Prince Rainier III of Monaco. She said that interview with Kelly was difficult because it was like “pulling teeth.”
By the 1970s, Walters had worked her way to more serious news stories like the men in her field were doing. She did political interviews with just about every president since then. She was favored by Richard Nixon and did the first interview with Jimmy Carter after he made his announcement.
After working for TODAY for 15 years, she made the move to ABC News and eventually to prime time on that network with 20/20.
She not only broke the glass ceiling for women in news, but she also shattered it.
“Just work harder than anybody,” Walters said. “You’re not going to get it by whining, and you’re not going to get it by shouting. You’re not going to get it by quitting. You’re going to get it by being there, and I think that’s what happened with me.”
