Amyre Makupson ( ), , was born September 30, 1947, in

River Rouge, Michigan River Rouge (, french: link=no, Rivière Rouge, translation=red river) is a city in Wayne County, Michigan, Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 7,224 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The city is named aft ...

. She is a former news anchor and director of public affairs at

WKBD WKBD-TV (channel 50) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside CBS owned-and-operated station WWJ-TV (channel 62). Both stations share studios on ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Career

Makupson held positions at

WSM-TV WSMV-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power Telemundo affiliate WTNX-LD (channel 15). The two stations share studios on Knob Road i ...

in Nashville and

WRC-TV WRC-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Washington, D.C., airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Class A television se ...

in Washington, D.C., before moving back to Detroit in 1975 to work as director of public relations for Head Start, the Michigan Health Maintenance Organization. That same year, Makupson was hired by WGPR-TV, the nation's first African-American owned television station, to anchor ''Big City News'' and the Detroit focused talk show ''Porterhouse''. In 1977, Makupson joined WKBD as news anchor and public affairs director. At WKBD, she hosted ''Morning Break'', the station's daily talk show, and produced and anchored a five-minute newsbreak called ''TV50 News Scene''. In 1985, Makupson was appointed co-anchor of WKBD's newly-launched ''Ten O'Clock News''; beginning in 2001, she also began to anchor ''62 CBS Eyewitness News at 11'' on WKBD's sister station,

WWJ-TV WWJ-TV (channel 62) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, owned and operated by the CBS television network. Under common ownership with CW affiliate WKBD-TV under the network's CBS News and Stations group, both station ...

(ironically, the former WGPR). Amyre left the duopoly following the closure of the two stations' news department in December 2002. Her parents, Dr. Rudolph Hannibal and Amyre Ann Porche Porter, sent her to Detroit's Visitation Catholic Elementary School and she graduated from St. Mary's Academy High School in Monroe, Michigan, in 1965. She earned her B.A. degree in dramatics and speech from

Fisk University Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1930, Fisk was the first Africa ...

in 1970 and her M.A. degree in speech arts/communications theory from

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

in 1972. In November 2003, she acted in a local play in Detroit and wrote a book about death, ''So... What's Next?''. She was nominated for an Exemplary Volunteer Service Award by Michigan Gov.

Jennifer Granholm Jennifer Mulhern Granholm (born February 5, 1959) is a Canadian-American lawyer, educator, author, political commentator, and politician serving as the 16th United States secretary of energy since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, she pre ...

in 2007. Though she is now retired from television news, her daughter (also named Amyre Makupson) was recently a primary news anchor at

WGXA WGXA (channel 24) is a television station in Macon, Georgia, United States, affiliated with Fox and ABC. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard ( GA 11/ GA 22/ GA 49/US 80/ US 129) i ...

Macon, GA Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia. Situated near the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is located southeast of Atlanta and lies near the geographic center of the state of ...

. Amyre II has since been hired by, ironically, her mother's old stations WWJ and WKBD, as "executive producer of community impact" for the new ''CBS News Detroit'', set to launch in January 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Makupson, Amyre 1947 births Living people People from River Rouge, Michigan American television personalities Fisk University alumni American University alumni