Linda Ellerbee, a pioneering television journalist who explained stories to children on Nick News, has announced her retirement after 44 years in journalism.
Ellerbee, 71, will end her career with a one-hour celebration of her work on Nickelodeon on Dec. 15.
“It's really nice to be one of the few who walks away from television news on their own time and of their own choice and I'm really lucky in that,” the Texas native told ABC News. “That really didn't happen for so many of my contemporaries, didn't happen because of age or cutbacks in news. ... I go smiling.”
Ellerbee’s career turned to television after she was fired by the Associated Press in 1972. She worked for local news stations in Houston and New York before she moved to NBC News. There, she wrote Overnight with Lloyd Dobyns from 1984 to 1986. In 1986, NBC News didn’t renew her contract, even as her book And So It Goes became a bestseller.
She was briefly at ABC News, but her career to a new turn in the early 1990s. She moved to the then-new Nickelodeon and was Nick News chief for 25 years. Ellerbee was tasked with explaining tough situations - from the Persian Gulf War to the Oklahoma City bombings to 9/11 - to children.
According to USA Today, Nick doesn’t plan on replacing Ellerbee but still wants to produce Nick News episodes. It would be hard to replace Ellerbee.
Ellerbee won eight Primetime Emmys, including one in 2013 for a Nick News episode on children with HIV and AIDS.