Growing up on the Southside of Chicago, reading books was my favorite sport. The books told stories about people and I dreamed that someday I would tell stories about people. I joined my high school newspaper and got my first experience in reporting and writing when I did a story about the King and Queen of the Senior Prom. From that, oh-so humble beginning, I got hooked on journalism.

After college at the University of Michigan and grad school at the University of Iowa, I began a career in radio and television news that spanned more than 40 years. I told, perhaps, thousands of stories about people from every walk of life. I loved it.

I started my career at local radio and TV stations in Chicago and had the great fortune to meet and cover Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., during his civil rights crusade in the North. The NBC network News Division noticed my work, offered me a job and moved my family to Washington, DC, to work for NBC News. Seven years later, I was courted by ABC News where I stayed for 24 years and enjoyed my highest achievements: I was the first black woman to anchor the news for a major network; I covered the release of Nelson Mandela from 27 years in jail in South Africa; and I was the first woman and first minority to moderate a presidential debate.

All of these highlights allowed me to tell stories about people to international audiences.

I retired from ABC news in 2006 and moved from Washington to Boston. Not only did I want to be near my daughter and her family (Dr. Mallika Marshall, a physician who is also the medical correspondent for the local CBS station) but I also began a second career as a college professor. For 13 years, I taught broadcast journalism students how to report and write their own stories about people. Those years were challenging and rewarding.

I am now retired but I realize I have stories of my own which are worth sharing. I want to both talk about the news of the day and the bedeviling issues of our times. Keeping silent is not my style.

So, here I am, with a new website and video blog. And, of course, putting my take on things out there with social media. W.O.W. The wise old woman who has Something. To. Say.