James Howard "Jim" Vance III (January 10, 1942 - July 22, 2017) was an American television news anchor in Washington, D.C.
Video Jim Vance
Early life
Born on January 10, 1942, Vance grew up in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, a suburb west of Philadelphia. His father, James Vance Jr., was a veteran of World War II. James Vance Jr. died of cirrhosis of the liver when his son was nine years old. "When my old man died, I was convinced that it was my fault. I was convinced I was such a piece of shit that he'd rather die than hang out with me," Jim Vance later said. His grandparents raised him while his mother, Eleanor, lived and worked in Philadelphia. Vance felt his mother had abandoned him, and he kept a lot of resentment against his mother for decades.
As a teenager, Vance wanted to be a plumber like his grandfather, but his grandparents encouraged him to attend college. Vance earned a Bachelor of Science degree in secondary education from Cheyney University, a historically black university in Cheyney, Pennsylvania. Vance was friends with Ed Bradley at Cheyney University.
Maps Jim Vance
Career
Vance began his news career as a reporter for the Philadelphia Independent newspaper and WHAT-AM radio station, while simultaneously teaching English for three years. A friend mentioned that WKBS-TV was searching for someone for their newly started news operation, and Vance suddenly realized he was working in the wrong profession. Vance worked as a reporter for WKBS for one year and was then hired by NBC News to report for the network's Washington, D.C. station, WRC-TV in 1969.
In 1972, Vance became WRC-TV's main co-anchor, as one of the first African Americans to serve in this position at any American television station. The station received a lot of hate mail when Vance was promoted to co-anchor.
Between 1972 and 1976, Vance worked as co-anchor with Glenn Rinker at WRC-TV. Between 1976 and 1980, Vance co-anchored with Sue Simmons, a pairing that resulted in one of the first, if not the first, African-American co-anchors of a major market newscast.
Beginning in 1989, Vance was part of the longest-running anchor team in Washington D.C. television, alongside co-anchor and health reporter Doreen Gentzler. Vance's 11pm newscasts with Gentzler regularly drew more viewers than the prime-time shows of the three major cable networks, combined (CNN, Fox and MSNBC). Vance and sports anchor George Michael once laughed uproariously at a model who fell twice on a runway.
Vance had an extremely brief cameo as himself in the 2009 movie State of Play. Vance also appeared as himself in a 2010 episode of the NBC series The Event and in a 2013 edition of another NBC series, The Blacklist.
Awards and honors
Vance earned 19 local Emmy Awards. One of the Emmy awards was for his coverage of the 1977 Hanafi Siege of three buildings in downtown Washington, D.C. Vance earned another Emmy award for his coverage of the January 1982 crash of Air Florida Flight 90 in the Potomac River, which killed 78 people, and a Metrorail train derailment the same day, which killed three people. He was also recognized as anchor and reporter for extended news coverage of Super Bowl XXII.
Vance also received multiple Emmy Awards for Outstanding News Anchor in 1987, 1991, 1997, 1999, and 2011. He also received a 1999 award as producer and reporter for WRC-TV's News4 at 6 broadcast. In 2014, Jim Vance received the Board of Governor's Award for outstanding achievement and community service.
Vance was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame on August 10, 2007. Vance was named "Washingtonian of the Year" by Washingtonian magazine in 1976.
Personal life
Vance lived in Silver Spring, Maryland. He was married briefly for 10 months, to Margo L. Vance (deceased 2014), when he was 19 years old. He sired a daughter, Dawn, from that marriage. A second marriage to Barbara Schmidt-Vance also ended in divorce in the mid-1980s. In 1987, he married his third wife, Kathy McCampbell Vance, a television producer and former WRC-TV executive. His other two children are daughter Amani (b. 1972), from his second wife, and son Brendon (b. 1976). He has two grandsons and one granddaughter.
Vance battled a cocaine addiction in the late 1970s and early 1980s, later going public with the ordeal. Vance checked into the Betty Ford Center in 1984. One night in 1987, Vance sat on the ground by the Potomac River at Great Falls, and he stuck his bird-hunting shotgun in his mouth and considered pulling the trigger. Vance stopped, lowered the shotgun, and cried. College friend Ed Bradley encouraged him to seek therapy, and Vance went for help at a dingy downtown support group "full of old-school drunks" the next day. In 2014, Vance spoke about his mother's verbal abuse of him as a child, and advocated against that form of discipline.
Death
In May 2017, Vance revealed he was battling lung cancer, but would continue working through treatment. Vance died in his sleep on July 22, 2017, with his daughter, Amani, by his side. He was 75. At the time of his death, Vance was the region's longest-serving television news anchor with more than 45 years at WRC-TV.
References
External links
- Jim Vance bio at nbcwashington.com
Source of article : Wikipedia
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