When Tamron Hall was just a little gal growing up in Luling outside of San Antonio, she admitted that she was pretty inquisitive. Over the years, she discovered an inspiration. It was WFAA’s Iola Johnson, who was WFAA’s first African-American news anchor, desk-partnering with Tracy Rowlett, Troy Dungan and Dale Hansen, in the 1908s.
Tamron set her sights on being a television journalist that eventually led her to North Texas, where she was a KTVT-CH. 11 reporter from 1994 to 1997.
Eventually Tamron ended up calling NBC and MSNBC home base for ten years starting in 2007, where she served as general assignments reporter and fill-in anchor. She found herself at the “Today” show desk with Matt Lauer and Al Roker. The stars were in alignment. Like Iola, Tamron was break tradition for African American women in a news broadcasting. But this time it was network morning news at The Rock.
But then the air literally came out of the balloon, when it was announced that FOX’s Megyn Kelly was moving to NBC and Tamron’s high-profile position was being eliminated. Not settling for lesser positions, she opted to exit much to the surprise of viewers and her associates in February 2017.
Just seven months later things were looking up again for Tamron. She had a new boss and company. They were arranging for her to have a daytime talk show. Only it didn’t happen. Her new boss was Harvey Weinstein and the company was Weinstein Television. Less that a month after the announcement Harvey and the company would go into a tailspin because of the #MeToo movement.
On the personal front, Tamron was also dealing with a tragedy and its aftermath. In 2004 she learned that her sister Renate Hall had been found dead in a pool. All the signs pointed to it being the result of domestic violence. In an interview at the Television Critics Association, Tamron said “there were many signals of domestic abuse that she realized at the time, but did not do anything to intervene, and she also partly blames herself for the loss of her sister.”
To bring the issue of domestic violence to the forefront, Tamron started a fund to help victims of abuse and made it a key topic on her “Deadline: Crime With Tamron Hall.”
For this reason, her serving as the keynote speaker for The Family Place’s 2018 Texas Trailblazer Luncheon will be a sort of poignant homecoming. Yes, she’ll return to a city where she covered other people’s stories, but it will also be for a fundraiser that deals with an issue that she knows all too well.
This luncheon promises to have an all-star cast with Tamron, Co-Chairs Sunie Solomon and Amy Turner, Honorary Co-Chairs Sammye and Mike Myers and Texas Trailblazer Awardee Michael Sorrell.
Tickets and sponsorships are available for the luncheon at the Omni Dallas Hotel on Wednesday, September 26. BTW, you might want to wish Tamron a belated “Happy birthday.” She’ll be turning 48 on Sunday, September 16.