Jane Pauley

On 14 June 1980, Pauley married Garry Trudeau who is a cartoonist and the creator of the comic strip ‘Doonesbury’. The couple has two sons, Ross and Thomas, and a daughter, Rachel. They also have two grandchildren.

Jane Pauley was born on 31 October 1950 in Indianapolis, Indiana to Richard Pauley, a salesman who worked at the Wilson Milk Company, and Mary Pauley, a homemaker and part-time musician, who played the organ at church services every week.

Jane Pauley has one older sister named Ann, who she looked up to as a kid and considers her closest companion.

She graduated from Warren Central High School located in Indianapolis in 1968. She won numerous speech and debate championships during her time in school. Pauley then attended Indiana University where she majored in political science and was also a member of the ‘Kappa Kappa Gamma’ sorority.

She got her first job as a reporter for the Indianapolis network station WISH-TV in 1972 after graduating from college.

She then joined seasoned anchor Floyd Kalber at Chicago’s WMAQ-TV in 1975 after spending three years at WISH-TV. She became Chicago’s first woman anchor on an evening newscast.

Pauley’s first co-anchor at the Today Show was Tom Brokaw; he co-anchored the show from 1976 to December 1981. She was then joined by Bryant Gumbel from 4 January 1982. Pauley also happened to anchor the Sunday edition of ‘NBC Nightly News’ from 1980 to 1982.

In 1983, Pauley became a symbol for working mothers after giving birth to twins. Her pregnancy was closely followed by the public and media.

In 1989, speculations implying that newsreader Deborah Norville was to replace Pauley were on the rise after the former was given a larger part in the two-hour broadcasts. In October 1989, Jane Pauley announced that she would be leaving the Today show in order to spend more time with her three children.

On 26 February 1990, it was reported in the New York Times that since 26 January, the Today show suffered a 10 percent loss in audience. It also fell to second place in the top network rating charts, coming behind ABC’s Good Morning America. Pauley’s absence was noted to be one of the most important factors in the show’s slump in ratings.

In a 23 June 1990 article of the New York Magazine, it was reported that in the one-year period from February 1989 to February 1990, the Today show lost an estimated $10 million because of its 22% slump in ratings. The article was titled ‘Back From the Brink, Jane Pauley Has Become America’s Favorite Newswoman’.

She won the ‘Glamour Woman of the Year’ award in 1990.

In 1998, Pauley was inducted into the Broadcast and Cable Hall of Fame.

In 2002, she won a Primetime Emmy award for ‘Best Story in a Newsmagazine’ for her work on ‘Dateline’.

In 2015, Pauley won a Daytime Emmy Award for ‘Outstanding Morning Program’ for her CBS News Sunday Morning show.

She was awarded the Paul White Award for ‘Lifetime Contribution to Journalism’ by the Radio and Television News Directors Association.