Gloria Clyne, NBC’s First Female Page, Dies at 85

NBC’s first female page, who was hired in 1944 and spent 55 years with NBC, died this week at her home in Greenwood Lake, NY. She was 85.

NBC hired Gloria Clyne as a “guidette” for the network when she was 18 years old, in the midst of World War II. In the absence of young men, NBC hired Clyne and three other girls to give guided tours of the NBC facilities. Throughout the course of her career at NBC, she was a production assistant and a segment producer for Al Roker when he was an up-and-coming meteorologist.

Clyne retired in 1999 with a yearly salary of $47,000. “I never got rich, but it was a priceless experience,” Clyne told The New York Post last year. “I spent my life there.”