I’m so saddened by this. I haven’t watched the local news since I was maybe 10 or 12- that’s just about twenty-five years ago- but growing up, we were a WFSB family and Denise and Gerry Brooks were our news team. I remember dad cooking dinner, me doing homework, the tv set to the news and Denise bringing us the stories of the day, every day. She was the quintessential news anchor. She was perfect. No flaws at all (except being a Syracuse grad). Always prepared, professional, clear, full of integrity and grace. You trusted everything she said. Never a bias. Not like today. She delivered news. Not news with opinion. And she was great at it. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore. Though I haven’t watched for a long time, if I happened to hear her voice without seeing the screen, I knew it was her and she was giving the news straight, as it should be, just as she always did for so many years. Easily, for me, the most recognizable local tv personality.
I’ll miss her, in part because a link to childhood memories is gone, but her passing also makes me think about my parents’ mortality. Denise was a year younger than my mother and a year older than my father. In the greater picture, I’ll also miss her for what she represented as a news anchor and how her job was done.
RIP Denise.