Thursday morning, ABC O&O WABC/7 New York reporter Lisa Colagrossi was doing her job, covering a news story (a fire) and reporting live.
But Friday, WABC had to air another story…not produced by her, but about her own sudden death.
Lisa Colagrossi, Eyewitness News reporter, anchor, wife and mother, has died at age 49.
Lisa suffered a brain hemorrhage while returning from covering a story Thursday morning.
And it’s a death that sent shock waves through the New York City ABC station…and all the way back to Cleveland.
She covered some of the biggest stories in the Tri-State for almost 14 years. She started working at WABC the Sunday after the World Trade Center disaster.
In a town that’s pretty tough to crack, this native Clevelander out hustled other New York reporters from the very beginning, by becoming the only reporter to get to Belle Harbor, Queens when Flight 587 crashed after takeoff from JFK Airport.
Yes, Clevelander.
Lisa started her career at now-Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3, in her hometown…she was a Strongsville native.
In the early 1990s, Lisa was a weekend anchor for WKYC, in a picture here from station senior director Frank Macek’s “Director’s Cut” blog.
At WKYC, Lisa was teamed up with Jim Hooley when the weekend morning news launched and was an anchor with Cory Thompson on the weekend evening shift as well.
Colagrossi, 49, was born and raised in Strongsville and besides working at WKYC and WABC, she worked at WKMG-TV/Orlando.
After an anchor stint in Orlando (where she ran into people who would later work in Cleveland), Colagrossi caught on as a freelance reporter in New York City a week after the 9/11 attacks, and caught on at WABC full-time not long after.
Our sincere condolences to her family – husband Todd and their two children – and to her broadcast family, both at WABC and those who remember her at WKYC…
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