All the big local news outlets were live-streaming today’s memorial service for the West Coast’s first Black female TV reporter, Belva Davis, after the trailblazing 92-year-old’s death in late September.
If you’re a fan of Belva Davis, the first Black woman TV reporter on the West Coast who died on September 24, listen up: Davis’s epic memorial took place Monday at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral. And you can watch the full video now, via KTVU.
Davis had worked for KTVU in the late 1960s, and for KPIX and KRON4 (when it was an NBC affiliate), before her epic 35-year stint at KQED.
Davis started as a freelancer for Jet magazine in 1957, getting $5 an article and receiving no byline on her work. By the 1960s, she was writing and editing for Bay Area Black newspapers Bay Area Independent and the Sun Reporter. She bounced around as a reporter for several AM radio stations, until KTVU hired her as a TV reporter in 1963. Her first assignment was to cover a beauty pageant.
But that made Davis the first Black female TV reporter on the West Coast. Her first big assignment came in 1964 when she covered the Republican National Convention at the Cow Palace. According to the New York Times, followers of the nominee Barry Goldwater threw garbage at her, and a glass soda bottle hurled at her nearly hit her in the head.
Undaunted, Davis would move on to KPIX, and became their main evening news desk anchor. She moved to that same position at KRON4, and then to KQED in 1977, where she hosted A Closer Look, Evening Edition, and This Week in Northern California, until her retirement in 2012.
Over that time, Belva Davis won eight Emmy Awards, and in 2008 was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Hall of Fame.
Related: Beloved Longtime KTVU Anchorman Dennis Richmond Dies at Age 81 [SFist]
Image: BEVERLY HILLS, CA-OCTOBER 14: Journalist and award recipient Belva Davis speaks at the International Women's Media Foundation's 15th Annual Courage in Journalism Awards on October 14, 2004 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Vince Bucci/Getty Images)
