Natalie Jacobson (born August 14, 1943) is an American former news anchor with

WCVB-TV WCVB-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Hearst Television. The station's studios are located on TV Place (off Gould Street near the I-95/ MA 128/Highland Avenue int ...

in Boston, Massachusetts.

Early life

Jacobson is the daughter of William G. and Dawn (née Trbovich) Salatich. She is of Serbian descent In 1965 she graduated from the

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, mo ...

with a degree in English. That same year she married Army officer William D. Jacobson. During her husband's military career, Jacobson held a civilian job in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

. The Jacobsons divorced in 1973.

Career

William Jacobson's military career ended in 1969 and the couple moved to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. She wanted to go into journalism, but was unable to find work in the field. She eventually got an interview with independent station WKBG (now

WLVI-TV WLVI (channel 56) is a television station licensed to Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, serving the Boston area as an affiliate of The CW. It is owned by Sunbeam Television alongside WHDH (channel 7), an independent station. WLVI and W ...

), but was not hired. However, she was later chosen to be the station's public affairs director. She moved to

WBZ-TV WBZ-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent station WSBK-TV (channe ...

as an off-camera producer after WKBG eliminated its public affairs division. On March 19, 1972, Jacobson joined newly-formed

as a reporter. There she met news anchor

Chet Curtis Chet Curtis (born Chester Kukiewicz; April 15, 1939 – January 22, 2014) was an American newscaster who co-anchored with his then-wife, newscaster Natalie Jacobson. He was born in Amsterdam, New York and raised in Schenectady, New York.

, whom she married in May 1975. In 1976 she became the first female anchor of a Boston evening newscast in when she began co-anchoring WCVB's 6 p.m. newscasts. In 1978 she began anchoring the 11 p.m. newscasts with Tom Ellis. In 1982 she and Curtis began a 17-year pairing as co-anchors of the station's 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts."Chet Curtis, longtime Boston TV news anchor, dies at 74"
''The Boston Globe''; retrieved January 25, 2014. During her tenure at WCVB, Jacobson covered the

Boston Pops Orchestra The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart. Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Symp ...

's annual

Fourth of July Independence Day (colloquially the Fourth of July) is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence, which was ratified by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States ...

concert,

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

, and

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

's visits to Boston, the Blizzard of '78, the presidential campaigns of Massachusetts'

Michael Dukakis Michael Stanley Dukakis (; born November 3, 1933) is an American retired lawyer and politician who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and again from 1983 to 1991. He is the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history a ...

and

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...

, the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

, and the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

2004 World Series The 2004 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2004 season. The 100th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Boston Red Sox and the National Leag ...

victory. Her 1990 interview with Democratic gubernatorial nominee

John Silber John Robert Silber (August 15, 1926 – September 27, 2012) was an American academician and candidate for public office. From 1971 to 1996, he was President of Boston University (BU) and, from 1996 to 2002, Chancellor. From 2002 to 2003, he again ...

became notable after Silber's outburst when Jacobson asked him to describe his weaknesses. Silber's lead in the polls vanished after the interview and he lost the race to

William Weld William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

. On December 14, 1999, Jacobson and Curtis announced that they were divorcing. WCVB split up the Curtis/Jacobson pairing in July 2000. Curtis was moved to Sunday's 11 p.m. newscast and street reporting and soon departed WCVB for

NECN New England Cable News (NECN) is a regional 24-hour cable news television network owned and operated by NBCUniversal (as part of the NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations division, both ultimately owned by Comcast) serving the New England regi ...

. Jacobson scaled back her work. She anchored the 6 p.m. newscasts solo until March 2007, when she was joined by Ed Harding. Curtis and Jacobson's divorce was finalized in 2001. On July 10, 2007, Jacobson announced that she would leave WCVB-TV. Her last newscast was on July 18, 2007.

References

External links

Natalie Jacobson's bio on thebostonchannel.com

Natalie Jacobson remembers Chet Curtis on WCVB TV
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobson, Natalie 1944 births Living people Television anchors from Boston American people of Serbian descent University of New Hampshire alumni