Don Harrison
Don Harrison (August 8, 1936 – May 2, 1998) was an anchor on CNN Headline News from 1982 until his death from renal cancer in 1998. He was a member of the original team of anchors when Headline News went on the air for the first time as "CNN2" in 1982.
Harrison, a native of Ottawa, Kansas, graduated from Ottawa High School in 1954 and attended Kansas State Teachers College, now Emporia State University.[1] He spent over three decades in the broadcast business. He began his TV career at WIBW in Topeka after previously doing radio.[2] From 1962 to 1973, he was on the staff of KCMO-TV (now KCTV) in Kansas City.[3] While there, he won an award from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for a documentary called "This Old House."[2] He anchored WBAL-TV's Action News in Baltimore in the early 1970s. He was the lead anchor at Tampa's WTSP from 1979 to 1982. For another four years, he worked for KMSP in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Harrison was also in high demand for voice-over work, mostly for Turner properties, including TBS, Turner Sports, and CNN International. In 1987, Harrison won the CableACE award for best news anchor.[4] On January 10, 1992, Harrison came seconds away from reporting false reports of the death of George H.W. Bush after he vomited on the Japanese Prime Minister before an off-screen staff member intervened and shouted, "No! Stop!"[5][6] The tip had been given by a man in Idaho who had claimed to be Bush's physician.[7] Harrison later said, "In my heart, I knew it wasn't accurate...I just knew that reading it was wrong."[6]
In 1992, Harrison auditioned for a lead anchor position for WTSP, the position he had previously held.[8]
Harrison lost a leg due to bone cancer at age 13 and a kidney, also because of cancer, in 1993. At the time of his death, he was married to his wife Carolyn and had two sons and a daughter.[9] A previous marriage to his wife, Marilyn, ended when she died from leukemia on May 24, 1976, aged 31.[10]
References
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External links
[edit | edit source]- Photos of Don Harrison at Headline News
- Video clips of Don Harrison on Headline News
- TVARK online museum CNN Headline News entry for 1982
- Don Harrison at Find a GraveLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- AP's obituary
- Chicago Sun-Times' obituary
- CNN's obituary
- LA Times' obituary
- Topeka Capital-Journal's obituary
- American Journalism Review article about the time when Don Harrison was almost forced to announce the death of a U.S. president who was still alive
- Harrison joins Baltimore's WBAL-TV in Broadcasting, January 7, 1974
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