Lisa Thomas-Laury is a retired

news presenter A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

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. From 1983 to 2003, she co-anchored the 5 p.m. newscast aired by

WPVI-TV WPVI-TV (channel 6), branded on-air as 6 ABC, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station ...

Career

Thomas-Laury started at

in Philadelphia on February 20, 1978, as noon co-anchor and reporter. In 1983, she was promoted to the 5 p.m. newscast, co-anchoring it until 2003 with now-retired news anchor Marc Howard. At the same time, she frequently substituted for

Jim Gardner James or Jim Gardner may refer to: * James Gardner (surveyor), British engineer * James Gardner (designer) (1907–1995), British industrial designer * James Gardner (musician) (born 1962), British musician and composer * James A. Gardner (1943–1 ...

when he was unable to anchor the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts. She also has done the monthly ''Fast Forward'' series, a show geared toward teenagers; it is currently hosted by Rick Williams. She has taken over the African-American-oriented, locally produced ''Visions'' program (now named ''New Visions'') from Vernon Odom. Thomas-Laury is one of a few African American women to anchor in the Philadelphia market, a group that includes WPVI anchor

Tamala Edwards Tamala Monique Edwards (born April 7, 1971) is an American television news anchor and reporter. She began her journalism career as a correspondent for ''Time'' magazine in 1993, eventually working in the Washington, D.C. bureau. In August 2001, ...

, former

WCAU WCAU (channel 10) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Mount Laurel, New Jerse ...

anchor Renee Chenault-Fattah, KYW anchor Natasha Brown, and

WTXF WTXF-TV (channel 29) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on Market ...

anchor Joyce Evans.

Medical leave

In 2002, Thomas-Laury began to experience health problems. Her first symptoms were tingling in her feet, which she assumed was from too much power walking. Her problem was initially misdiagnosed. According to a WPVI special report from November, 2005, Lisa finally ended up at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where she got the right diagnosis: she was suffering from

POEMS Syndrome POEMS syndrome (also termed osteosclerotic myeloma, Crow–Fukase syndrome, Takatsuki disease, or PEP syndrome) is a rare paraneoplastic syndrome caused by a clone of aberrant plasma cells. The name POEMS is an acronym for some of the disease's ...

, which can cause nerve damage, organ enlargement, hormonal imbalances, and skin changes. She went on medical leave from ''

Action News ''Action News'' is a local television newscast format originating in the United States. First conceived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it is characterized by a tight format with strict time limits on set packages, a focus on surrounding suburbs, ...

'' for almost a year and returned to work on September 11, 2003. She was scheduled to return to hosting the annual Thanksgiving Day parade, which she had missed in 2002, but her health problems returned, causing her to miss the parade again and return to medical leave. In May 2004,

announced on the air that Lisa Thomas-Laury would be permanently leaving her anchor duties (but not leaving WPVI altogether, as Gardner said that the door would be open for her to return when her health permitted) in order to have more time to focus on her recovery.

Return to broadcasting

During WPVI's 11:00 p.m. newscast on November 22, 2006, Thomas-Laury made a guest appearance and announced that she would return to the station in the next few weeks. She appeared the following day, November 23, 2006, during the broadcast of Philadelphia's annual Thanksgiving Day parade, the parade she once co-hosted. She returned to ''Action News'' on January 2, 2007, with a report on the opening of Oprah Winfrey's school for girls in South Africa. Since that time, Thomas-Laury has frequently filed reports for the noon, 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 11 p.m. newscasts and has also filled in on them as anchor. She retired on Wednesday, May 25, 2016, after a 38-year career at the station. The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia inducted Thomas-Laury into their Hall of Fame in 2009. In 2017, she wrote a memoir, ''On Camera and Off, When the News is Good and When it's Not''. She spent most of 2017 on a regional book tour.

References

External links

Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas-Laury, Lisa Living people American television journalists American women television journalists African-American television personalities Marshall University alumni Television anchors from Philadelphia Philadelphia television reporters 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women Year of birth missing (living people)