US(Washington Insider Magazine) -Walters was the first woman to host a prime-time television newscast in the US and set a style with her incisive interviews with leaders like Fidel Castro and presidents of her country from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump.
Pioneering US television broadcaster Barbara Walters has died at the age of 93 after a career that spanned more than half a century.
In 1976, Walters became the first American network news anchor when she joined ABC News.
The journalist and broadcaster, who was born in Boston at the start of the Great Depression in 1929, has won 12 Emmy Awards.
In addition to every US president from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump, he interviewed leaders like Fidel Castro and Vladimir Putin.
“I asked Vladimir Putin if he ever ordered someone killed,” Walters once recounted. “For the record, he said ‘no’.”
“Barbara Walters passed away peacefully at home surrounded by her loved ones,” publicist Cindi Berger said in a statement Friday night.
“She lived her life with no regrets. She was a trailblazer not just for women journalists, but for all women.”
Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC News, praised Walters as someone who broke down barriers.
“Barbara was a true legend, a trailblazer not only for women in journalism but for the profession itself,” Iger said.
“She was a unique reporter who managed many of the most important interviews of our time, from heads of state to the biggest icons in entertainment and sports.
“She will be missed by everyone at the company and we send our deepest condolences to her daughter, Jacqueline,” she added in a statement.
At The Forefront
Walters, the daughter of a show business booking agent, began her career in journalism in 1961 with NBC, where she became a producer of women’s interest story segments.
She rose through the ranks of the then male-dominated industry to make history in 1974 by becoming the first female co-anchor of a US news program, on NBC’s morning Today Show.
Two years later, she broke the glass ceiling again by becoming the first female network news anchor, this time on ABC’s evening bulletin.
Her unprecedented $1 million dollar salary made her a media superstar.
Three years later she became co-host of the show 20/20 and in 1997 she launched the talk show The View, which still airs on ABC today although she stopped hosting it in 2014.
“I have been blessed with a life that I never expected,” said Walters in 2000 when she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from her country’s National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
His Great Inspiration
In his 2008 memoir Audition, Walters revealed that he received his ambition for success from his older sister, Jacqueline, who was born developmentally disabled.
“Her condition of hers altered my life,” the journalist wrote.
“I think from an early age I knew that at some point Jackie would become my responsibility. That was one of the main drivers that drove me to work so hard.”
Walters was married four times to three men (one of whom she married twice) and she adopted her daughter, Jacqueline Guber, with her second husband.
She named her daughter after her sister as a beautiful tribute.
This article is authored by BBC News Mundo.