Veteran television news reporter and anchor Lisa Colagrossi was remembered for her compassionate and reliable reporting after her death in New York.
The 49-year-old wife and mother of two suffered a brain hemorrhage after covering a story Thursday morning, said her employer, CNN affiliate WABC. She died Friday.
Fans and colleagues started sharing tributes within hours of the news and continued into the weekend. Even her hockey team, the New York Rangers, shared condolences on Twitter.
The death of a morning news fixture in one of the country’s largest markets felt like losing a loved one, many said — a testament to the role of local news in an age of global media.
“Extended family is what our TV news people become,” a fan said in a Facebook comment on her page. “Lisa was a true and shining example of what we expect in an anchor and reporter.”
Another person who said she met Colagrossi on the job said she seemed “genuinely concerned” about the story she was covering.
“Such a wonderful reporter. May she sleep in Peace.”
Like most television journalists she made a few stops on her way to New York. She was an anchor and reporter in her native Cleveland before moving onto stations in Alabama, West Virginia and Orlando.
In a news town that’s tough to break into, Colagrossi “out-hustled other New York reporters from the very beginning,” anchor Lori Stokes said.
New Yorkers got to know Colagrossi as a reporter for “Eyewitness News This Morning.”
Colagrossi covered some of the region’s biggest stories starting with the September 11 attacks, which happened days before she started in 2001. She covered it all with equal professionalism and dedication, whether it was a St. Patrick’s Day parade, the Sandy Hook shootings or winter storm closures, Stokes said.
“She always had the viewer in mind; whether it was rain, snow, whatever the elements, she was out there,” Stokes said, voice trembling as she eulogized her colleague in Friday’s broadcast. “It’s what New Yorkers came to know from Lisa Colagrossi: authentic, steady, reassuring reporting.”
She leaves behind two sons and a husband.
“It’s hard to imagine mornings without Lisa,” Stokes said. “We here at Eyewitness News are still in shock and we’re trying to cope with the loss of someone we loved and valued.”