Uma Pemmaraju obit

Former Fox News anchor Uma Pemmaraju dies at 64; Megyn Kelly, more mourn her death

 

She was not on the list.

Former Fox News Channel anchor Uma Pemmaraju has died, the cable news network announced Tuesday. She was 64.

"We are deeply saddened by the death of Uma Pemmaraju, who was one of FOX News Channel’s founding anchors and was on the air the day we launched," Fox CEO Suzanne Scott said in a statement published by the network. "Uma was an incredibly talented journalist as well as a warm and lovely person, best known for her kindness to everyone she worked with."

The cause of her death "was not immediately made public," according to Fox News.

Pemmaraju began working with Fox News in 1996, anchoring the network's early shows including "Fox News Now" and "Fox on Trends." Before her time at the cable news channel, she was an anchor for Boston's CBS affiliate station WBZ-TV during her Emmy-winning tenure there, beginning in 1992.

WBZ-TV anchor David Wade considered the news of her death a "sad passing for WBZ."

"Her family tells me she was a 'noble soul and pioneer' as an Indian Asian American news woman of prominence," he wrote on Twitter.

Pemmaraju's early television career started in her home state of Texas at KENS-TV and the San Antonio Express-News newspaper as a producer and reporter while keeping a full-time load in college at Trinity University. She also served as the editor of her college newspaper. She next moved to KTVT-11 in Dallas, as a news anchor and correspondent and then to WMAR-TV in Baltimore where she won an Emmy.From Baltimore, she went to WLVI and WBZ-TV in Boston where she was a correspondent and a tipster/producer for WBZ's Evening Magazine.

Pemmaraju was part of the original Fox News team when the network launched in October 1996. She has hosted many different news shows on the network and has hosted a number of specials. She has interviewed high-profile newsmakers from the Dalai Lama to astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Joel Osteen, Carly Simon, Donald Trump, Whoopi Goldberg, Sarah Palin, along with a host of senators and congressional leaders from D.C. In addition to being coined as "Boston's Best Anchor" in 1996 and 1997 by Boston magazine, Pemmaraju has received numerous Emmy awards for her reporting and investigative journalism. Other honors throughout her career include: the Texas AP Award for reporting, The Woman of Achievement Award from the Big Sisters Organization of America and the Matrix Award from Women in Communications. She also attended American University studying international relations for one year as part of an exchange program with Trinity.

Pemmaraju was born in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh, India, and grew up in San Antonio, Texas, United States. She graduated from Trinity University in Texas with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science.