Marlene Sanders
Marlene Sanders was a television journalist, news anchor and network executive. She was a trailblazer in her field, becoming one of the first women to report from Vietnam, and was one of the first women to reach network upper management when she became vice president and director of documentaries for ABC in 1976.
She was also a pioneer in television news anchoring. She substituted for ABC’s evening news anchor Ron Cochran in 1964, and in 1971 she took over for three months for Sam Donaldson as anchor of ABC’s weekend news.
After attending Ohio State University for a year, she got her start while pursuing a career as an actress. While her acting career did not take off, she did meet Mike Wallace while working at the Theater by the Sea, where he was a producer. Eventually she found work as an assistant on Wallace’s twice-daily news broadcast, Mike Wallace and the News. Later she became an associate producer of Wallace’s late-night interview program, Nightbeat, and she teamed up with the anchorman again as a writer and producer of the news program P.M. East, which he hosted.
Sanders later became an assistant news director of WNEW radio in New York, where she wrote and produced documentaries. She joined ABC News as a correspondent in 1964, remaining with the network for 14 years. For several of those years she anchored a five-minute afternoon news broadcast called News With the Woman’s Touch. She also produced documentaries for ABC, many of which dealt with women and religion.
Marlene Sanders was a television journalist, news anchor and network executive. She was a trailblazer in her field, becoming one of the first women to report from Vietnam, and was one of the first women to reach network upper management when she became vice president and director of documentaries for ABC in 1976.
She was also a pioneer in television news anchoring. She substituted for ABC’s evening news anchor Ron Cochran in 1964, and in 1971 she took over for three months for Sam Donaldson as anchor of ABC’s weekend news.
After attending Ohio State University for a year, she got her start while pursuing a career as an actress. While her acting career did not take off, she did meet Mike Wallace while working at the Theater by the Sea, where he was a producer. Eventually she found work as an assistant on Wallace’s twice-daily news broadcast, Mike Wallace and the News. Later she became an associate producer of Wallace’s late-night interview program, Nightbeat, and she teamed up with the anchorman again as a writer and producer of the news program P.M. East, which he hosted.
Sanders later became an assistant news director of WNEW radio in New York, where she wrote and produced documentaries. She joined ABC News as a correspondent in 1964, remaining with the network for 14 years. For several of those years she anchored a five-minute afternoon news broadcast called News With the Woman’s Touch. She also produced documentaries for ABC, many of which dealt with women and religion.
In 1978 Sanders moved to CBS as a correspondent and producer for CBS Reports, winning three Emmy Awards for her work. She spent nearly 10 years at CBS and was the host of several public affairs programs on WNET.
For the last 20 years she was an adjunct professor of journalism at New York University.
In 1988 she wrote about the status of women in journalism in her book Waiting for Prime Time: The Women of Television News.
Sanders died July 14, 2015, in New York City. She was 84.
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