Marlene Sanders Dead at 84

TV news pioneer Marlene Sanders died Tuesday at the age of 84.

Sanders’ son, CNN legal analyst and New Yorker staff writer Jeffrey Toobin, announced her death on his Facebook page.

“Marlene Sanders, my mother, died today. A pioneering television journalist – the first network newswoman to report from Vietnam, among many other firsts – she informed and inspired a generation,” wrote Toobin. “Above all, though, she was a great Mom.”

Sanders worked with ABC News in the 1960s and was the first woman to anchor a network evening newscast, filling in for Ron Cochran.

She joined CBS News in 1978 as a documentary correspondent/producer and stayed through 1987, winning three Emmys along the way.