During the 1980s and ’90s, network news was predominantly covered by male anchors Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw. Ted Turner’s Cable News Network was launched in 1980, followed by CNN2 in 1982, which became CNN Headline News. In 1983, Lynne Russell became the first woman to solo anchor a regular prime-time newscast for CNN Headline News. This month we look back on Russell’s career, which included a brief but memorable time in the islands.
Russell was born in New Jersey but grew up in many U.S. cities and in Germany because her father was in the Army. After Russell graduated from high school in Albuquerque, N.M., she attended nursing school at the University of Colorado.
Realizing nursing wasn’t her calling, she landed a job at a radio station, KCOL in Fort Collins, Colo. "At the time it was a 1,000-watt station that dropped power to 500 watts at sundown. They were lucky if they could hear us across the street," Russell said.
She moved to Miami, where she had her own talk radio show and served as program director. She landed her first television news job anchoring and reporting in Jacksonville, Fla., before moving to Boston in the late 1970s to work as a producer with her then-husband, Jim Dunlap, who managed a radio station.
In 1980,Hawaii came calling, "When my husband had an offer in Honolulu, we grabbed it," Russell said. KHON hired Russell as a reporter and anchor.
"Jack Kellner hired me. I adored him," she said. Russell anchored the live cut-ins during NBC’s "Today" show, long before we had the local morning news programs.
Her KHON colleagues included Paul Udell, Joe Moore, Ed Evans, Melanie Granfors, Barbara Tanabe, Harry Alama, Tex Gibson, Ray Lovell and Dalton Tanonaka. "I loved all of them," Russell said.
Some of Russell’s memorable moments at KHON included covering Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos’ visit to the islands and a Hokule‘a voyage.
Wanting to be closer to her family on the mainland, Russell landed an anchor position in San Antonio. Two years later she landed a job at CNN. The network was breaking ground and developing itself into a 24-hour news station, which was unheard of at the time.
For nearly 20 years Russell was the face and voice of CNN Headline News. She covered some of the biggest news events of the 1980s and ’90s, including the Challenger explosion, the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the Gulf War.
But Russell said she believes the small stories that don’t get as much coverage are equally important: "I can’t shake the corny journalistic notion that all news is important if it makes a difference in someone’s life, if it delivers unbiased information and especially if it touches the viewer and changes something inside."
In May 2011, Russell left CNN to help take care of her then-husband, who was ill. In between caring for him, she began writing novels and producing hand-stitched Italian silk lampshades (available at www.BeneventoLampshades.com).
She drew source material from her eclectic interests and the range of jobs she has held over the years. Her experiences as a licensed private investigator and reserve deputy sheriff, and having earned a black belt in martial arts, figure into the novels she has written.
"I am finishing another P.J. Santini romantic crime story, ‘Heels of Fortune.’ It’s the follow-up to ‘Hell on Heels,’" she said. "This series is about a TV reporter of Italian ancestry who’s a private investigator, a woman with a weakness for dark chocolate and dangerous men," Russell said.
The first Santini novel is available as an e-book on Amazon.com; the second novel will be released soon in both print and e-book formats.
In July, Russell married her former CNN colleague Chuck de Caro. The newlyweds exchanged their vows in a medieval castle in Italy. They call the District of Columbia area home, but Russell will never forget her time in the islands.
"Returning to Hawaii is really always on my mind. I talk about ‘the Hawaii I know’ more than you can possibly imagine," she said.
"And I tell everyone who prepares to visit that books on Hawaiian history are required reading; otherwise, it’s only half a visit.
"I think about the scent of the islands, about the spirit of aloha, about Violet’s Lei Stand, the Kunia orchid show. I hear ‘Honolulu City Lights’ out of the blue sometimes, when the air is just right and a breeze blows through. Of course I’m coming back."
A.J. McWhorter, a collector of film and videotape cataloging Hawaii’s TV history, has worked as a producer, writer and researcher for both local and national media. Email him at flashback@hawaii.rr.com.
