Gwen Ifill, PBS news anchor, dead at 61: ‘Surrounded by loving family’ in last moments

PBS news anchor Gwen Ifill has died at 61.

WETA president and CEO Sharon Percy Rockefeller informed staff on Monday that Ms. Ifill, the network’s “Washington Week” editor, died surrounded by friends and family.

The reporter formerly worked with NBC News, The Washington Post,  and The New York Times.

“I am very sad to tell you that our dear friend and beloved colleague Gwen Ifill passed away today in hospice care in Washington,” Rockefeller wrote in an email to employees, Politico reported. “I spent an hour with her this morning and she was resting comfortably, surrounded by loving family and friends… Earlier today, I conveyed to Gwen the devoted love and affection of all of us at WETA/NewsHour.

“Let us hold Gwen and her family even closer now in our hearts and prayers.”

The Associated Press reported Ms. Ifill had been battling cancer.

Ms. Ifill began her career working for the Baltimore Evening Sun and then the Boston Herald American. She said during a 2013 interview with The New York Times that it heartened her to know minority children would see her on television due to racial progress.

“When I was a little girl watching programs like this — because that’s the kind of nerdy family we were — I would look up and not see anyone who looked like me in any way. No women. No people of color,” she said Aug. 6, 2013. “I’m very keen about the fact that a little girl now, watching the news, when they see me and Judy [Woodruff] sitting side by side, it will occur to them that that’s perfectly normal — that it won’t seem like any big breakthrough at all.”