(NECN: Latoyia Edwards) - Liz Walker's megawatt smile, sharp command of the facts and disarming charm cemented her as one of the top news anchors on New England television for more than 2 decades.
Liz made history in the 1980s as the only African-American female leading a primetime newscast in New England.
Liz's celebrated career in Boston has direct ties to a group of black children known as the Little Rock 9 from her home state of Arkansas. They endured devastating racism to integrate the high school Liz later attended, where she discovered a love of journalism on the school paper.
"Remember I grew up in a time when you really didn't know you what you could be, you didn't know how far you could go, you didn't know you could achieve things outside of a small world, so this was back during the time of desegregation and things were just beginning to change," she says.
Liz initially wanted to be a newspaper writer, but after graduating from the University of Wisconsin, TV news came calling.
"Television came because there was a job offering, job opening in my hometown television station. They needed black women. They had no black women. They had no blacks on television. And I was like the second black women to be hired in Little Rock, Ark., in television so that was a huge kind of opening," she says.
After Arkansas, Liz worked in Denver and San Francisco before arriving at WBZ-TV in Boston, and while she immediately like the people here, the racial tensions were challenging.
"Boston was a very scary town. This was 1980, but people were still reeling from the bussing situation. It was fresh," she says. "The thing that I remember most about being a reporter here in 1980 is they wouldn't send us on certain stories. We could not go or at least our news desk would not send us to Charlestown, would not send us to Southie - black people - and it was very kind of weird to live in a city that had those unspoken rules but the city was very volatile even then and that was several years after bussing."
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Liz still remembers what was the worst of it for her.
"I was trying to meet my crew at a story, and I was on 128 and my car broke down - which is still kind of a silly thing - and I was waiting on police or whoever was suppose to come. And somebody drove by and screamed out n*****. And that was probably only time I heard that word in Boston, and that took me, you know, back. But I don't remember any other negative things," she recalls.
In fact, nearly all of her time in Boston has been magical, including her special on-air partnership with sportscaster Bob Lobel, when they started as the weekend team.
"We just had a natural kind of fun relationship that wasn't planned that wasn't practiced. He was just that kind of kid - man - who, you know, like Peter Pan, he just didnt want to grow up," Liz says, adding, "but we had the charisma that people really were attracted to, so I know those who ran channel 4 at that time saw that chemistry and thought it was a good match on the evening news. We moved up together and it worked and our ratings went up and, then, you know, they'll put anybody on if our ratings go up. The news was bad enough, but they knew when they got to sports, you were going to have a smile, you were going to have a chuckle, you were going to have a laugh. So I think that's what did it."
Liz guided viewers through New England's biggest stories, such as accused killer Whitey Bulger going on the run, or what she calls the magic year of 1986, when the Boston Celtics, Red Sox, Patriots and her news team were all on top.
But in 1987, Liz's personal life made huge local and national headlines: She was pregnant and unmarried working on television. Even 60 Minutes wanted to do an interview about the controversy. Liz refused to let the publicity overtake her.
"I grew up in struggle. That feeds me. You know, that's like: You call me a name or say I am not qualified. Let me show you how qualified I am. And that's how I have been in this business," Liz says.
After a seven week maternity leave, Liz returned to the evening anchor desk with a majority of viewers wishing her well.
"Once you kind cross that threshold of familiarity, you've earned your way. Boston loves you and it will keep you. And it will open its doors to you," she says.
Liz left WBZ in 2005, and in that same year, she graduated from Harvard's School of Divinity and became an ordained minister. Today, she is the newest pastor of the Roxbury Presbyterian Church.
Liz now looks forward to connecting with local people in a much more lasting way than television could ever allow.
"My church is in Roxbury here and outside that door I have people from every race who are walking in and every culture who are around. There is something very hopeful about that. And this city is becoming that, like it or not," she says.
**Liz Walker archival footage courtesy WBZ-TV**
