Karen Foss

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Karen Foss, born Karen Colleen Graham in Kansas City, Missouri on February 2, 1944, was a television anchorwoman on KSDK in St. Louis, Missouri from 1979 until December 28, 2006. Foss won six Emmys, two for best anchor, named media personality of the year, and acquired the highest “Q” rating as the best-known news reader in the local market. In 2005, she was inducted into the Silver Circle by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for her 25 years of journalistic excellence by the NATAS Mid-America Chapter. ^[1] Before her work at KSDK, she began her television career at KCMO-TV (now KCTV), in Kansas City, Missouri. [1]

Foss was named vice president for public relations for the utility Ameren on February 21, 2007.^[2]

1 Retirement from broadcasting
2 Personal life
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Retirement from broadcasting

On Monday, December 18, 2006, Karen Foss announced her retirement from KSDK. Her last day on-air aired on Thursday, December 28, 2006. She has served St. Louis anchoring the news for 27 years. Foss says her own research indicates that she has been the oldest woman anchoring the 10 p.m. news at any TV station in the country. "I'm very proud of that," she said. Mayor Francis Slay officially made December 28, 2006, as "Karen Foss Day" in St. Louis.

[edit] Personal life

In contrast to her stable professional life, Foss’s private life has been less settled. Foss has been married four times and did not know her real father, Robert Graham, until she was in her twenties. For many years she was told by her mother, Wilma, that her stonemason stepfather, Gene McFadden was her real father. In her teens, Foss dropped out of high school to marry Gary Lockwood who is a physician in Kansas City. Lockwood is the father of her two children, Kary, born when Foss was 17 and Scott, born when Foss was 19. ^[3] Foss divorced Lockwood in her twenties and married Kansas City architect Michael Foss whose name she kept. In her thirties she divorced Foss and married Saint Louis attorney David Lacks. In her forties, she divorced Lacks and married a younger man, Jim Whiteley, who is now a part-time gambling counselor and residential real estate salesman. Foss filed for divorce from Whiteley in November, 2007; the case is still pending.^[4]