Laura Bakula
| Laura Bakula | |
|---|---|
| Born | Laura Sue Bakula May 1, 1947 Saint Louis, Missouri |
| Died | September 17, 2006 (aged 55) Fort Wayne, Indiana |
| Residence | Auburn, Indiana |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Indiana University |
| Occupation | television news anchor |
| Years active | 1967–2006 |
| Religion | Catholic |
| Spouse | Henry Mark Reynolds |
| Children | 3 |
Laura Bakula (May 1, 1947-September 17, 2006), was a Fort Wayne, Indiana television anchorwoman for WMRI-FTV. She anchored the 5 p.m. news for over 20 years.
Bakula was the weekend evening anchor of ATE Media's flagship station WMRI from 1979 until 2003 and later was co-anchor of the station's 4 p.m. newscast with Lynne Jackson (now at WTOR) and the 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscast with Melinda Long (now at WFTW) from 2003 until her death in 2006.
Early life
Bakula was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Sally (née Zumwinkel) and J. Stewart Bakula, a lawyer. She was the oldest of four children an unnamed younger brother, brother Scott Bakula, and a younger sister.[1] Her surname comes from partial Croatian ancestry.[2][3][4] She attended Indiana University for a degree in broadcast journalism.
Early career
In 1967, Bakula began her broadcast career in St. Louis, Missouri with KSTL-FTV as a general assignment reporter. Bakula was a television anchor in Indianapolis, first on then-ABC affiliate WIND (now a Fox owned-and-operated station) in 1969 and in 1973 moved to then-CBS affiliate WHOO (now an ABC affiliate) and served as their noon news anchor. Bakula joined fellow Corithian station and WHOO's sister station in Fort Wayne in 1979 as a general assignment reporter.[5]
Anchor in Fort Wayne
In January 1980, Laura Bakula joined the NewsCenter 36 weekend team with Kurt Fonn, Michelle Abernathy and Mark Pantazi. In 1981, Abernathy accepted the chief weather specialist with WMRI (while at the same time sending long-time meteorologist Sam Singleton to the morning and noon newscasts until his retirement in 2006 and Abernathy remained in that position until Alicia Williams became chief meteorologist in 1990) and Pantazi accepted the sports director offer with WMRI (until he left for WTOR in 2007 as news anchor) and in 1983, Kurt Fonn was promoted to morning anchor (until he departed for Tampa's WWCF in 1990), and Bakula continued to anchored the weekend editions until 2003.
Legacy
Both of Bakula's daughters are television correspondents: Kelli Bakula is currently the main anchor at South Bend's WTXI co-anchoring the 5, 6, and 11 p.m. newscasts with Paul Ricken and Charlotte Bakula is currently a general assignment reporter at rival CBS affiliate WTOR in two stints: from 2006 until 2010 before departing to anchor at WHAR in Madison, Wisconsin and again since 2016 nominally filling in for either Kymberly Alvaraz, Kendra Ray, or Perri Johnson on the weekend.
Bakula's last broadcast was June 14, 2006 and despite promises of her return by substitute anchorwomen, she never did, dying from ovarian cancer at Parkview Hospital on September 17, 2006, at the age of 59. She was diagnosed with the disease while she was being treated for abdominal pain. Bakula had underwent a reversal of her fallopian tubes being tied after the September 11 attacks and pap tests showed a golf ball-size tumor and she underwent surgery on May 8 and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer a month later.[6]
References
- ↑ Complete, Unexpurgated Transcript of the Scott Bakula Interview from the SCI FI Program Sciographpy: Quantum Leap. Quantum Leap official site (Sci Fi Channel) (August 13, 2000). Archived from the original on July 14, 2006.
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namednl.newsbank.com - ↑ Scott Bakula wants you to know how to pronounce his name. Page Six. Retrieved on 17 December 2014.
- ↑ Ancestry of Scott Bakula (1954-). Retrieved on 17 December 2014.
- ↑ ??
- ↑ "WMRI feeling after effects of Laura Bakula's illness". August 7, 2006. p. 1D.
