ABC, CBS News Pioneer Marlene Sanders Dies at 84

By Mark Joyella 

Marlene Sanders, a trailblazing woman in broadcast news, died of cancer Tuesday at 84. USA Today reports Sanders son, CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin, said “she was a pioneering broadcaster and, above all, a great Mom.”

Sanders filled in for ABC’s Ron Cochran one night in 1964, becoming the first woman to anchor a prime-time network newscast. She was also the first female TV journalist to report from Vietnam. Later, she became the first female vice-president of a news division, at ABC, in 1976.

Sanders moved to CBS in 1978, where she produced documentaries and served as a correspondent until her retirement in 1987.

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