Uma Pemmaraju, a founding anchor at Fox News Channel, died earlier this month in Ossining, New York. She was 64 and the cause of death was not divulged.
Pemmaraju was born in India and moved to San Antonio as a baby. In high school, she worked as a reporter for the San Antonio Express-News, and interviewed CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite, the NY Times reported.
She got her degree at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and went into local TV. Pemmaraju worked at a station in Baltimore before landing anchor jobs at WLVI and WBZ in Boston, and was a correspondent on WBZ’s Evening Magazine.
Pemmaraju also taught journalism at Emerson College and Harvard University.
She was recruited to Fox News by senior programming executive Chet Collier, according to The New York Times, and was on the network when it launched in 1996. She hosted Fox News Now.
Fox News said Pemmaraju was the first Indian-American anchor to regularly appear on national TV.
Pemmaraju departed Fox News in 1999 to give birth, then worked at a Dallas station, and returned to Fox News in 2003 as a news update anchor and substitute host, and Sunday host of Fox News Live.
"We are deeply saddened by the death of Uma Pemmaraju, who was one of Fox News Channel’s founding anchors and was on the air the day we launched,” said Suzanne Scott, Fox News Media CEO. “Uma was an incredibly talented journalist as well as a warm and lovely person, best known for her kindness to everyone she worked with. We extend our heartfelt condolences to her entire family.”
She left Fox again in 2018 and joined Bloomberg News, but departed within a year due to back trouble.
Pemmaraju was working on a book at the time of her death about heroic deeds done by everyday people. ■
