Pioneering TV news broadcaster Barbara Walters and longtime ABC News anchor and correspondent who shattered the glass ceiling and became a dominant force in an industry once dominated by men, has died at age 93, multiple news outlets reported Friday.
“We were all influenced by Barbara Walters,” ABC News’ David Muir said in a tribute Friday, remembering Walters as an “extraordinary human being, journalist, pioneer, legend.”
“She broke barriers behind the scenes and she broke news on-camera. She got people to say things they never would’ve said to another journalist.”
The trailblazing television icon joined ABC News in 1976, becoming the first female anchor on an evening news program. Three years later, she became a co-host of “20/20,” and in 1997, she launched “The View.”
In a career that spanned five decades, Walters won 12 Emmy awards, 11 of those while at ABC News.
She made her final appearance as a co-host of “The View” in 2014, but remained an executive producer of the show and continued to do some interviews and specials for ABC News.
“I do not want to appear on another program or climb another mountain,” she said at the time. “I want instead to sit on a sunny field and admire the very gifted women — and OK, some men too — who will be taking my place.”
Although she appeared on “The View” after her retirement, the veteran journalist mostly kept out of the public eye, CNN reported.
A native of Boston, Walters was the daughter of entertainment impresario Lou Walters, who owned nightclubs in New York, Miami and Boston. She is survived by her daughter.
