Molly Turner | |
|---|---|
 Molly Turner in 1963 | |
| Born | 1923 |
| Died | July 21, 2016 (aged 92–93) New Jersey |
| Occupation(s) | News anchor and reporter |
| Years active | 1951-1988 |
Molly Turner (1923 – 21 July 2016) was an American television news anchor and Emmy Award-winning television reporter in Florida.[1]
Turner's television career began in 1951, when her mother encouraged her to audition for a Saturday morning show on Florida's WTVJ Channel 4. Turner was given the comedic role of country music singer Cousin Effie in the station's "Uncle Martin Show".[2] She later went on to producing, working on both commercials and a three-hour morning show.[3] In 1960 she became the midday anchor at rival station WLBW Channel 10.[4]
In 1969 WLBW was bought by Post-Newsweek and became WPLG. The focus of its broadcasting shifted to hard news. Turner became a television reporter, the first woman to hold such a position in South Florida.[1][4] From 1974, she began to specialise in consumer reporting.[2][5]
Throughout her working life, Turner contributed to community organisations and projects; in the late 1980s she served on the Women's Park Founders' Committee, which established Women's Park in Miami-Dade County.[6]
In 1988 she retired from news reporting.[2]
Turner was founder and president of the Gold Coast Chapter of American Women in Radio and Television; in 1975 she was named the organisation's "Woman of the Year" and in 1986 she received its Florida Legend award.[5] In 2001 she won the Imprint Award from the Miami International Press Club.[3] She won three Emmy Awards for investigative reporting on water quality, health clubs, and the women's rights movement, and she also won a National Press Club merit award in 1997 for a series of articles on housing shortages, entitled Locked Out of the American Dream.[1][7]
In 2003, WPLG television station invited her back to the station to celebrate her 80th birthday.[4] In 2007, she was visited in her retirement home by U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Turner's former colleague Dwight Lauderdale for a presentation to acknowledge her services to local television news.[4]