Diane Sawyer

Diane Sawyer was born Lila Diane Sawyer on December 22, 1945, in Glasgow, Kentucky. Her family later moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where her father became a local politician. Sawyer attended Seneca High School and in 1963, she won the America’s Junior Miss scholarship pageant. She toured the country promoting the Coca-Cola Pavilion at the 1964–1965 New York World’s Fair before graduating from Wellesley College in 1967. After college, Sawyer returned to Kentucky and worked as a weather forecaster and general-assignment reporter for WLKY-TV in Louisville. In 1970, she moved to Washington, D.C., where she joined the White House staff, initially as an assistant to the deputy press secretary, writing press releases and public statements for President Richard Nixon. She later became an administrative assistant to White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler and a staff assistant to President Nixon, remaining through his resignation in 1974. Sawyer continued to work with Nixon, assisting him in writing his memoirs, “RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon,” published in 1978, and helping prepare him for his television interviews with David Frost in 1977.

In 1978, Sawyer transitioned to CBS News as a general-assignment reporter, progressing to political correspondent in 1980. She became co-anchor of “Morning with Charles Kuralt” in 1981, and from 1982 to 1984, she also co-anchored the “CBS Early Morning News.” In 1984, Sawyer made history as the first female correspondent on “60 Minutes,” a CBS News investigative newsmagazine. She moved to ABC News in 1989 to co-anchor “Primetime Live” with Sam Donaldson, a role she held until 1998. She also co-anchored “20/20 Wednesday” from 1998 to 2000 and a Sunday edition of “20/20” with Barbara Walters from 1998 to 1999. Sawyer returned to morning news in 1999 as co-anchor of “Good Morning America” with Charles Gibson, a position she maintained for nearly eleven years. She continued her role as co-anchor of “Primetime” (later “Primetime Thursday”) from 2000 to 2006. On September 2, 2009, Sawyer was announced as the successor to Charles Gibson as anchor of “ABC World News,” officially taking the helm on December 21, 2009. She anchored “ABC World News” until August 27, 2014, after which she transitioned to a role focusing on specials and interviews for ABC News. Throughout her career, Sawyer has conducted interviews with numerous world leaders and major newsmakers, and produced acclaimed documentaries, including the “Hidden America” series, which earned her a Peabody Award and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.