Jessica Savitch
Encyclopedia
Jessica Beth Savitch was an American
television
broadcaster and news reporter, host of PBS
' Frontline and New York weekend anchor of NBC Nightly News
during the short-lived Roger Mudd
/Tom Brokaw
era.
, about thirty-five miles from Philadelphia. She was the daughter of Florence (née Goldberger), a navy nurse, and David Savitch, who ran a clothing store. Her father and maternal grandfather were Jewish
, and her maternal grandmother was Italian American
and Catholic. After her father died in 1959, her family moved to Margate, New Jersey
(a suburb of Atlantic City). She attended Ithaca College
in Ithaca, New York
, where she worked at the campus radio and TV stations and at WBBF
, an AM outlet in Rochester
. After graduating in the spring of 1968, Savitch worked at various radio and TV stations, including WCBS
in New York
and KHOU-TV
in Houston. She then became a popular local television newscaster at KYW-TV
, the former NBC
affiliate (now CBS) in Philadelphia, and a Washington
correspondent for NBC News
. Thanks to her screen presence and attractive style, she was eventually promoted to the news anchor of the weekend NBC Nightly News
, and she also anchored Frontline on PBS
. Her autobiography, Anchorwoman, was published in 1982.
As Savitch's career skyrocketed however, her unstable personal life became increasingly messy. She had a stormy 10-year on-and-off relationship with news director Ron Kershaw
, who was allegedly abusive to her. Savitch also suffered through two difficult marriages. Her first marriage to advertising executive Mel Korn took place on January 6, 1980 at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Her husband's business failed soon afterwards and the couple separated 10 months later. By the time Savitch and Korn separated, she had begun having an affair with her gynecologist, Donald Payne. Payne was a closet homosexual who had recently gone through a bitter divorce of his own. Savitch married Donald Payne on March 21, 1981, weeks after her divorce was finalized. After Payne attempted suicide
, and was hospitalized, Savitch had her pregnancy terminated, but told friends that she had suffered a miscarriage
. Payne, who had been tormented by physical and mental illness, committed suicide on August 1, 1981 by hanging himself in the basement of their Washington DC townhouse.
On October 3, 1983, Savitch anchored a mid-evening news update called NBC News Digest, during which she slurred some words and skipped others entirely, giving the appearance she was under the influence of drug
s. Savitch had been suspected of abusing drugs in the past, and this one-minute performance, broadcast live and seen by millions of viewers across the United States, seemed to confirm those suspicions.
, in New Hope, Pennsylvania
. After the meal at Odette's Restaurant, they began to drive home about 7:15 pm, with Fischbein behind the wheel and Savitch in the back seat with her dog, Chewy.
Fischbein may have missed posted warning signs in a heavy rainfall, and he drove out of the wrong exit from the restaurant and up the towpath of the old Pennsylvania Canal's Delaware Division
on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River
. The car veered too far to the left and went over the edge into the shallow water of the canal. After falling approximately fifteen feet and landing upside down, the station wagon sank into deep mud that sealed the doors shut.
Savitch and Fischbein were trapped inside as water poured in. A local resident found the wreck at about 11:30 that night. Fischbein's body was still strapped behind the wheel, with Savitch and her dog in the rear. After the subsequent autopsies, the Bucks County coroner ruled that both had died from asphyxiation by drowning
. He noted that Fischbein was apparently knocked unconscious in the wreck but Savitch had struggled to escape. There was no finding that drugs or alcohol had played any part in the crash.
Savitch was inducted into "The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia's Hall of Fame" on November 17, 2006.
Savitch's life was the subject of a Lifetime Television
made-for-TV movie starring Sela Ward
called Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story. A theatrical movie starring Michelle Pfeiffer
, Up Close & Personal
, was originally intended as a biographical film about Savitch. However, the movie became an A Star Is Born-style entertainment instead, possibly because of a belief that Savitch's life was too downbeat to be popular at the box office.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
broadcaster and news reporter, host of PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
' Frontline and New York weekend anchor of NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News is the flagship daily evening television news program for NBC News and broadcasts. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is located in the center...
during the short-lived Roger Mudd
Roger Mudd
Roger Mudd is a U.S. television journalist and broadcaster, most recently as the primary anchor for The History Channel. Previously, Mudd was weekend and weekday substitute anchor of CBS Evening News, co-anchor of the weekday NBC Nightly News, and hosted NBC's Meet the Press, and NBC's American...
/Tom Brokaw
Tom Brokaw
Thomas John "Tom" Brokaw is an American television journalist and author best known as the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News from 1982 to 2004. He is the author of The Greatest Generation and other books and the recipient of numerous awards and honors...
era.
Life and career
Savitch was born in Kennett Square, PennsylvaniaKennett Square, Pennsylvania
Kennett Square is a borough in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is known as the Mushroom Capital of the World because mushroom farming in the region produces over a million pounds of mushrooms a year...
, about thirty-five miles from Philadelphia. She was the daughter of Florence (née Goldberger), a navy nurse, and David Savitch, who ran a clothing store. Her father and maternal grandfather were Jewish
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
, and her maternal grandmother was Italian American
Italian American
An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...
and Catholic. After her father died in 1959, her family moved to Margate, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
(a suburb of Atlantic City). She attended Ithaca College
Ithaca College
Ithaca College is a private college located on the South Hill of Ithaca, New York. The school was founded by William Egbert in 1892 as a conservatory of music. The college has a strong liberal arts core, but also offers several pre-professional programs and some graduate programs. The college is...
in Ithaca, New York
Ithaca, New York
The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...
, where she worked at the campus radio and TV stations and at WBBF
WROC (AM)
WROC is an AM radio station licensed to Rochester, New York. On September 2, 2008, WROC changed from an Air America affiliate to an ESPN affiliate...
, an AM outlet in Rochester
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
. After graduating in the spring of 1968, Savitch worked at various radio and TV stations, including WCBS
WCBS (AM)
WCBS , often referred to as "WCBS Newsradio 880" , is a radio station in New York City. Owned by CBS Radio, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of the CBS Radio Network...
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and KHOU-TV
KHOU-TV
KHOU is the CBS affiliate television station in Houston, Texas. Serving Greater Houston, it is owned by the Belo Corporation and broadcasts on digital and PSIP channel 11...
in Houston. She then became a popular local television newscaster at KYW-TV
KYW-TV
KYW-TV, virtual channel 3, is an owned and operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW-TV shares a studio facility with its sister station, CW flagship WPSG just north of Center City Philadelphia...
, the former NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
affiliate (now CBS) in Philadelphia, and a Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
correspondent for NBC News
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
. Thanks to her screen presence and attractive style, she was eventually promoted to the news anchor of the weekend NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News is the flagship daily evening television news program for NBC News and broadcasts. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is located in the center...
, and she also anchored Frontline on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
. Her autobiography, Anchorwoman, was published in 1982.
As Savitch's career skyrocketed however, her unstable personal life became increasingly messy. She had a stormy 10-year on-and-off relationship with news director Ron Kershaw
Ron Kershaw
Ron Kershaw was an American television news executive responsible for several television news innovations. Considered somewhat a genius, Kershaw was the news director in several large cities across the United States including New York, Chicago and Baltimore.-News director:In 1974, Kershaw was hired...
, who was allegedly abusive to her. Savitch also suffered through two difficult marriages. Her first marriage to advertising executive Mel Korn took place on January 6, 1980 at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Her husband's business failed soon afterwards and the couple separated 10 months later. By the time Savitch and Korn separated, she had begun having an affair with her gynecologist, Donald Payne. Payne was a closet homosexual who had recently gone through a bitter divorce of his own. Savitch married Donald Payne on March 21, 1981, weeks after her divorce was finalized. After Payne attempted suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
, and was hospitalized, Savitch had her pregnancy terminated, but told friends that she had suffered a miscarriage
Miscarriage
Miscarriage or spontaneous abortion is the spontaneous end of a pregnancy at a stage where the embryo or fetus is incapable of surviving independently, generally defined in humans at prior to 20 weeks of gestation...
. Payne, who had been tormented by physical and mental illness, committed suicide on August 1, 1981 by hanging himself in the basement of their Washington DC townhouse.
On October 3, 1983, Savitch anchored a mid-evening news update called NBC News Digest, during which she slurred some words and skipped others entirely, giving the appearance she was under the influence of drug
Drug
A drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law, government regulations, medicine, and colloquial usage.In pharmacology, a...
s. Savitch had been suspected of abusing drugs in the past, and this one-minute performance, broadcast live and seen by millions of viewers across the United States, seemed to confirm those suspicions.
Death
On Sunday, October 23, 1983, Savitch had dinner with Martin Fischbein, vice-president of the New York PostNew York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
, in New Hope, Pennsylvania
New Hope, Pennsylvania
New Hope, formerly known as Coryell's Ferry, is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, USA. The population was 2,528 at the 2010 census. The borough lies on the west bank of the Delaware River at its confluence with Aquetong Creek. A two-lane bridge carries automobile and foot traffic across the...
. After the meal at Odette's Restaurant, they began to drive home about 7:15 pm, with Fischbein behind the wheel and Savitch in the back seat with her dog, Chewy.
Fischbein may have missed posted warning signs in a heavy rainfall, and he drove out of the wrong exit from the restaurant and up the towpath of the old Pennsylvania Canal's Delaware Division
Pennsylvania Canal (Delaware Division)
The Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal, more commonly called the Delaware Canal, runs from the Lehigh River at Easton south to Bristol...
on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River
Delaware River
The Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.A Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson in 1609 first mapped the river. The river was christened the South River in the New Netherland colony that followed, in contrast to the North River, as the Hudson River was then...
. The car veered too far to the left and went over the edge into the shallow water of the canal. After falling approximately fifteen feet and landing upside down, the station wagon sank into deep mud that sealed the doors shut.
Savitch and Fischbein were trapped inside as water poured in. A local resident found the wreck at about 11:30 that night. Fischbein's body was still strapped behind the wheel, with Savitch and her dog in the rear. After the subsequent autopsies, the Bucks County coroner ruled that both had died from asphyxiation by drowning
Drowning
Drowning is death from asphyxia due to suffocation caused by water entering the lungs and preventing the absorption of oxygen leading to cerebral hypoxia....
. He noted that Fischbein was apparently knocked unconscious in the wreck but Savitch had struggled to escape. There was no finding that drugs or alcohol had played any part in the crash.
Legacy
Savitch's estate was awarded more than $8 million in a wrongful death action. Some of the money was used to set up college scholarships. The Jessica Savitch Distinguished Journalism lecture series is held at her alma mater, Ithaca College. In addition, the Park School of Communications at Ithaca College named a television studio on campus in her honor.Savitch was inducted into "The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia's Hall of Fame" on November 17, 2006.
Savitch's life was the subject of a Lifetime Television
Lifetime Television
Lifetime Television, often referred to as Lifetime TV, or most commonly, Lifetime, is an American cable television specialty channel devoted to movies, sitcoms and dramas, all of which are either geared toward women or feature women in lead roles. The cable network is owned by A&E Television Networks...
made-for-TV movie starring Sela Ward
Sela Ward
Sela Ann Ward is an American movie and television actress, perhaps best known for her television roles as Teddy Reed on the American TV series Sisters and as Lily Manning on Once and Again...
called Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story. A theatrical movie starring Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work...
, Up Close & Personal
Up Close & Personal
Up Close & Personal is an American romantic drama film directed by Jon Avnet, and starring Robert Redford as a news director and Michelle Pfeiffer as his protegée, with Stockard Channing, Joe Mantegna and Kate Nelligan in supporting roles....
, was originally intended as a biographical film about Savitch. However, the movie became an A Star Is Born-style entertainment instead, possibly because of a belief that Savitch's life was too downbeat to be popular at the box office.
Further reading
- Blair, Gwenda. Almost Golden: Jessica Savitch and the Selling of Television News, Avon Books, 1988. ISBN 0-380-70752-7