One of television’s first female journalists, Marlene Sanders, passed away Tuesday from cancer. She was 84.
CNN noted that Sanders’ son Jeffrey Toobin, who is a legal analyst for the network and staff writer for the New Yorker, announced the news via his Facebook page.
“Marlene Sanders, my mother, died today,” Toobin wrote. “A pioneering television journalist – the first network newswoman to report from Vietnam, among many other firsts – she informed and inspired a generation. Above all, though, she was a great Mom.”
Sanders was a true pioneer. The Ohio native became the first woman ever to anchor a prime-time network newscast when she was asked to fill in for Ron Cochran in 1964 at ABC. She was also the first female journalist to report from the field in Vietnam during the war in 1966, according to USA Today.
In addition to working at ABC, Sanders also spent time with CBS and New York station WNET.
Sanders’ husband died in 1984. She is survived by her son and grandchildren.
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