The car, apparently driven by Fischbein, ran off the road, overturned and plunged into the Delaware canal, where it became lodged in '3 feet of mud and ooze beneath 5 feet of water,' Rosko said. Her first marriage in 1980 to Philadelphia advertising executive Melvin "Mel" Korn ended in divorce after eleven months. (Crim delivered the eulogy at her memorial service after her death.) Unfortunately the A-body replacements were just the opposite. But he said blood and tissue samples were taken for toxology tests. Finally, I really hate to say this: this kind of story is NOT what I come to Curbside Classics for. There are stories on these pages that have a sadness to them. He signed out a 1982 Oldsmobile station wagon from the Posts fleet, and they headed toward Bucks County, PA with Chewy in tow. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. I appreciate your work and want to encourage you to continue. Instead of the correct was out, he drove up a towpath. Comment. Philadelphia viewers responded enthusiastically to her on-camera presence, which was perceived as "magical" and triggering an "almost emotional bond" with the audience. Jessica Savitch (1947-1983) - Find a Grave Memorial [4][19][20] These assertions were disputed by Savitch's family and some of her friends after her death. [24] According to the New Hope police chief, a similar death had occurred at the same spot some years before. She was offered the anchor position for an early-morning news program Early Today but turned it down. [26], The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia posthumously inducted Savitch into their Hall of Fame in 2006. ''It was raining, the weather was bad,'' Mr. Everett said. A tragic story and one that was probably only slightly less horrifying then the 1989 death of Leslie Ann Pluhar who had her Yugo blown off the Mackinac Bridge. I want to be constructive with my comments. She was 36 at the time of her death. A pioneering woman in broadcasting, Savitch was only 30 when, in 1977, fresh fromlocalTV news jobs in Philadelphia and Houston, NBC News hired her to coverCongress. They were divorced 10 months later. [1] Almost Golden states there had been several accidents and one fatality at this location. I guess were not supposed to call them stew bums any more either ? Mary Jo Kopechne was another young woman born in Pennsylvania, who met an infamous end in an Oldsmobile under water. Ms. Savitch (NOT Savage as some have called her) was in the back seat with her dog. While some of Savitch's colleagues said they had seen evidence of drug use, other friends and associates expressed skepticism that she had a drug problem. They are her living legacy.. Longtime WNBC anchor Sue Simmons: I met Jessica when I was very new in the business, working in Baltimore [at WBAL], and she was [anchoring at Phillys KYW and] the girlfriend of my news director, Ron Kershaw. Her mother, who was a nurse, moved with her three daughters to Margate, N.J. Miss Savitch began her broadcast career with a radio station in Atlantic City at the age of 14, and later became a disc jockey for a rock show in Rochester, N.Y., where she was known as "Honeybee." Bucks County coroner Thomas Rosko ruled late yesterday that both victims died of drowning.He said it appeared that Miss Savitch had made some attempt to get out of the Oldsmobile station wagon, but that Mr. Fischbein was found strapped into the driver's seat. We took them on many family vacations and hauled a lot of things in their cargo areas. Biography of Jessica Savitch which no one seems to mind. The eldest daughter of David Savitch, a clothing merchant and Florence Spadoni, a registered nurse. She was also assigned to anchor short NBC News updates (initially called NBC News Update, later called NBC News Capsule and NBC News Digest) that ran approximately one minute and aired between regular prime time programs each evening, drawing a high number of viewers. This wagon was officially known as a Cutlass Cruiser, until it morphed into a Ciera a few years later.. There, she did on-camera and voiceover commercial work, and while still attending college became a popular top 40 disc jockey known as "Honeybee" at WBBF (now WROC-AM). Please, dont get me wrong. 'Both victims died of asphyxia due to freshwater drowning,' Rosko said. Sadly the dealer trying to sell it to us had a ridiculous price on it at the time and dad passed. Fischbein, a vice president and general manager at the New York Post, joined the Post in 1978 when he left a job as assistant to labor mediator Theodore Kheel. It was to happen on a Monday. In 1972, she became a reporter and anchor for KYW-TV in Philadelphia. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. You could get a diesel, a 3.8 V6 and four different V8s. OBVIOUSLY, if I had remembered the details I might have skipped this story. I think that is what you aimed to do here. He drove out of the wrong exit from the restaurant and up the towpath of the old Pennsylvania Canal's Delaware Division on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River. went to the inimitable Sen. Edward M. Ted Kennedy, who was aiming his 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 sedan across a bridge that wasnt in the direction of the ferry that Kopechne wanted to catch. Jessica Savitch of Nbc-tv Killed in Car Accident Jessica Savitch seemed to have the world at her fingers. The car was found about an hour, hour and a half after the accident. [2], Jessica Savitch was born February 1, 1947, in Wilmington, Delaware. [19] Biographers have also asserted that Savitch was bisexual and had romantic relationships with women as well as men. [10] Another 1982 poll named her the "sexiest" female anchor in the country. (Thanks to all who pointed out my earlier error!). In January 1983, in addition to her work for NBC, Savitch began hosting a new public affairs documentary program on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), Frontline. I found the story interesting. Not terrible, mind you, it just seems like a couple of more cycles of editing could have buffed out the minor defects before it was published. Both books about her talk about open sores, scratches from coke roaches and her paranoia that sometimes manifested in manic rages. The last thing I personally want this site to be is Stepford Carstories. Raynes declined to disclose terms of the settlement Wednesday, but KYW-TV in Philadelphia reported that the agreement totaled more than $8 million, equal to what Miss Savitchs lifetime earnings would have been. On October 23, 1983, at the age of 36, she was killed in an automobile accident in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, in the United States of America. NBC's Jessica Savitch reports on the death of Princess Grace Kelly, following injuries sustained in a car accident in 1982. Both states have laws that make you ask: what in the heck were they thinking. In Tennessee, ANYONE, NO MATTER THEIR AGE, must provide proof of legal age when purchasing beer. He said there had been a similar death there some years ago. Her first marriage, to Mel Korn, a Philadelphia advertising executive, ended in divorce after less than one year. The best articles on this site cast stories of cars in a human context, whether that context is an individual life or, as in the best pieces from Paul and Laurence, the larger culture. Savitch was the network's second woman to anchor a weekend national newscast; Catherine Mackin had previously anchored NBC's Sunday evening newscast beginning in December 1976, before she left for ABC News the following year. The crew recorded it without sound, added background music from Aram Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance", and circulated the resulting tape to industry contacts, causing the tape of Savitch's tantrum to arrive at NBC before she began her new job and present her in a negative light to her new colleagues. Fischbein may have missed posted warning signs in a heavy rainfall. Neither Savitch nor Fischbein had any drugs other than alcohol in their system at the time of death, and they had consumed only small amounts of alcoholabout half a glass of wine each. All the cars I ever had from Olds were decent and reliable, except the last one. Watching her final broadcast before a car accident caused her death from drowning in 1983, it's hard not to suspect that she was on something. According to The Washington Post, each of her biographers interviewed over 300 people in order to write their respective books. But she was perhaps best known for her most recent assignment delivering NBC's one-minute prime-time News Updates during the week. And that kept him from ever getting to the White House. A sad story. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. She used the WCBS-TV facilities to make a television audition tape and sent copies to many television stations around the country, seeking an on-air position. If the Olds part is correct, and the interior picture is the car in question, I think it is a Cutlass wagon. Am I the only one who noticed the Burberry trench coat, muddied and soaked on the passenger seat? Miss Savitch had been with NBC since 1977. Good thing GM doesnt make Oldsmobiles anymore . Jessica, Fischbein and Chewy drowned. Its always sad to see one whos light shines so brightly , flame out . It had a two piece tailgatethe glass part was held up by gas struts which failed often and caused the glass to hit folks on the head (ow)..ask me how I know and the tailgate which swung down. A colleague who eulogized Jessica Savitch at a private While in high school in Atlantic City she got her first job in broadcasting, as a disk jockey and a news reader at radio station WOND in Pleasantville, N. J. Isadora Duncan! (Lynne, I hope we see more to come.) And his half-hearted run in 1980 showed just how much the nation didnt forget. Biography Jessica Beth Savitch was born February 1, 1947, in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. She held a variety of posts at NBC, including those of general assignment reporter, Senate correspondent, and principal writer-reporter for Saturday editions of "NBC Nightly News." I do remember this accident being in the news. To learn more about Jessica Hollifield motorcycle accident, read the following article. She began to fill more roles in NBC's news programming, serving as a regular panel member on Meet The Press, contributing to the news magazine programs Prime Time Saturday and Prime Time Sunday, and contributing commentary to the NBC Radio Network. Miss Savitch and Fischbein drowned Oct. 26, 1983. Generally speaking I dont think that an intervention is revealed to the person getting one ahead of time, so the speculation that it might have contributed to the accident is unlikely. [citation needed] Shortly before she left KYW, Savitch exploded in an angry tantrum during a commercial break because the pages of her news script had been provided out of order. Ms. Savitch documented her professional rise and personal problems in her recent autobiography, 'Anchorwoman,' and she was an outspoken advocate of women's professional rights. NEW HOPE, Pa. -- NBC newscaster Jessica Savitch, whose professional triumphs and personal tragedies were documented in her recent autobiography 'Anchorwoman,' drowned in a canal 'within a very few minutes' of a car crash in a rainstorm, officials say. the Ultimate Violation", won a Clarion Award for excellence from Women in Communications, Inc. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The A&E series Biography featured an episode about Savitch, which inspired Will Ferrell to make Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (basing the Ron Burgundy character on Savitch's friend Mort Crim). 1982 was the first year Oldsmobile spun Cutlass off into its own marque. She enjoyed the work and soon became a newsreader and disc jockey for WOND as well. Savitch was an extremely competent anchor, but had relatively little reporting experience and struggled as correspondent. After falling approximately fifteen feet and landing upside down in four to five feet of water, the car sank into deep mud that sealed the doors shut. And R.I.P Oldsmobile. An NBC spokesman said the two were engaged. Her maternal grandmother was of Italian American heritage and was Catholic. Both she and Mr. Fishbein died ''within one minute to a very few minutes'' after plunging into the canal, he said. Jessicas time at NBC was filled with uncertainty, and with the uncertainty came drug use. They are different though in that the authors were personally affected by the sad circumstance. Investigators said Fischbein, 34, mistakenly drove the car onto the towpath thinking it was an exit. The powers that be were convinced Jessica was going insane and would kill herself. The car went off the bridge, Kennedy escaped the car and left the scene, and didnt report the crash until the car, with Kopechnes body inside, was discovered next morning. From then until her death in October 1983, Savitch's only regular appearances on NBC were on the NBC News Digest segments. Savitch was one of the first women to anchor an evening network newscast solo, following in the footsteps of Marlene Sanders of ABC News and Catherine Mackin of NBC News. Whether the car landed upside down or right side up, the thick mud made opening ANY door/tailgate pretty much impossible. The 1996 feature film Up Close and Personal starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert Redford was very loosely based on her life. [25], In 1979, Savitch received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Ithaca College, her alma mater. [4] Although both biographies contain similar material, Savitch's family and friends have challenged as untrue portions of the books regarding her reporting skills and controversial aspects of her personal life (see Personal life). When she was initially unable to obtain a weeknight anchor shift, Savitch attempted to break her KYW contract and take a job offered by CBS in New York. Jessica had one divorce, then met a doctor with even worse drug troubles than hers, and married him. I enjoyed the article. Savitch's experiences as a pioneer anchorwoman also helped inspire Will Ferrell to make the 2004 film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. And, Happy New Year to you and to all CCers! THE REPORTER'S TRAGIC STORY - The Washington Post We became friends. When management failed to act, Ellerbee and other correspondents had tried to reach out to Savitch, who died before anything could be done. Remembering Jessica Savitch, 30 Years After Her Death - Adweek Ms. Savitch, who rose to a $500,000-a-year job at NBC by the time she was 33, found her second husband, Dr. Donald Rollie Payne, hanged in the basement of their Washington home in August 1981.
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