WLS anchor Linda Yu will sign off for the last time at the Chicago station on Wednesday afternoon.
Yu announced her retirement from the ABC-owned station in September after 33 years there. She’s anchored the station’s 4 p.m. newscast since she started in 1984.
The station posted a story about Yu as a tribute to Chicago’s first Asian-American anchor. In it, Yu said she was “painfully shy” when she first started her on-air career at KATU in Portland, Oregon.
Shyness did not stand in the way of job offers. In Portland, Yu’s bosses tap her for a segment called “You and Your Money.” Soon, she jumped to San Francisco.
“She had a lot going for her other than her looks. This is a smart woman and I didn’t know until I hired her how much of a hard worker she was,” said Peter Jacobus, the former news director at KGO-TV San Francisco.
After Chinese gang violence stunned San Francisco, Yu was sent to Hong Kong to dig into the story. The ABC bureau chief called Yu’s boss and asked, “Does this woman ever sleep?”
“She is one of the most considerate, thoughtful, nurturing people I have ever met in my whole life,” said former co-anchor Sylvia Perez.