July 15--Pioneering broadcast journalist Marlene Sanders, who scored many firsts for women in television news, died Tuesday at a hospice facility in New York. She was 84.
Sanders died after battling cancer, said her son, Jeffrey Toobin, who followed his mother into journalism -- he's a legal analyst for CNN and writes for the New Yorker.
In 1964, at a time of highly limited opportunities for women in TV news, Sanders was the first to anchor a prime-time network newscast. She was filling in for a ailing male anchor, but still, it was a breakthrough.
Sanders was also the first on-air network newswoman to cover the Vietnam War.
Although she was considered a serious reporter who covered major events, including the assassination of Robert Kennedy and the highly volatile 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, she was pigeonholed in many ways.
For several years she anchored an afternoon show called, "News with the Woman's Touch."
Sanders won three Emmy Awards in her career and was also an educator, teaching journalism at New York University.
A full obituary will appear at latimes.com/obituaries.
