Bay Area News Group
Wanda Ramey Queirolo, a pioneer in broadcast journalism who was among the first female news anchors in the country, died of cancer Saturday at her home in Greenbrae. She was 85.
During a career spanning four decades, Ramey Queirolo, a longtime Marin resident, helped pave the way for Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer and many other women in broadcast news.
After various on-air stints on local radio and TV, Ramey Queirolo made her biggest mark on KPIX-TV in the late 1950s as co-anchor of the first midday newscast on local television. She became the first woman anchor in the western United States and only the second woman anchor in the country at the time.
Peter Cleaveland, news anchor at KGO-TV about the same time Ramey Queirolo was at KPIX, said “it was a time when you could have women reporting, but they were on the social side or on food. They weren’t considered for positions doing hard news and daily news gathering. She broke that line.” More…