What a week it’s becoming for WSB-TV anchor Monica Pearson, who is retiring in July after 37 years at Channel 2 Action News.
On the day members of Congress heaped praise for her years in television news, Pearson disclosed Wednesday that she has been accepted into the University of Georgia’s graduate telecommunications program and will become a student in the fall.
Led by U.S. Rep. David Scott and carried live on C-SPAN, both Democratic and Republican members of the Georgia delegation took to the well of the House to pay tribute to Pearson’s TV news career in Atlanta.
Scott, who organized the tributes, called Pearson “a great American story” and said she broke racial barriers in the South when she was named an anchor at WSB-TV in 1975.
“Monica brought a special talent, a sparkling personality, hard work and a high nobility of purpose that has appealed to everybody, to people of all races,” Scott told fellow lawmakers.
Republican Rep. Phil Gingrey recapped the many professional awards Pearson has received over the years.
Gingrey, who called Pearson “one great lady,” said Atlanta is sad to see her retire but “very, very proud of her legacy.” Others expected to offer tributes, including Reps. Sanford Bishop and John Lewis.
In 1975, Pearson became the first black and first woman to anchor a 6 p.m. newscast in Atlanta. At the time she was known as Monica Kaufman.
Now 64, Pearson is the longest-running anchor in the Atlanta market, working through seven presidencies, six Georgia governors and a near doubling of population growth in the state. The Georgia House will also pay tribute to Pearson this week.
Pearson said Wednesday she reflected on how far she’d come from growing up in Louisville, Ky., and the challenges her mother faced as a single parent. Hattie Edmondson regularly pawned her engagement ring to help put her daughter through an all-girls Catholic high school.
“We both were crying,” Pearson said after she and her mother watched the C-SPAN broadcast. “It is surreal.”
Hattie Edmondson turns 89 on Saturday. “What better birthday gift for her?” Pearson said.
Pearson will be able to check off one of the things on her post-retirement to-do list when she begins graduate studies at UGA in the fall, fulfilling a longtime desire to return to school. On Tuesday, she received UGA’s DiGamma Kappa Lifetime Achievement Award in Broadcasting.
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