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Lisa Thomas-Laury
Retired Newscaster, Author & POEMS Syndrome Survivor
Lisa Thomas-Laury is a retired news presenter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
Ms. Thomas-Laury started at WPVI-TV in Philadelphia on February 20, 1978, as noon co-anchor and reporter. In 1983, she was promoted to the 5 p.m. newscast, co-anchoring it until 2003 with now-retired news anchor Marc Howard. At the same time, she frequently substituted for Jim Gardner when he was unable to anchor the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts. She also has done the monthly Fast Forward series, a show geared toward teenagers; it is currently hosted by Rick Williams. She has taken over the African-American-oriented, locally produced Visions program (now named New Visions) from Vernon Odom.
Thomas-Laury is also theorized to have been the inspiration for the character "Maria" from the Guess Who? board game. Although she denies this rumor, she has admitted to sitting as a model for the illustrator of the popular game. The connection, she claims, is purely coincidental.
Thomas-Laury is one of a few African American women to anchor in the Philadelphia market, a group that currently includes her fellow WPVI anchors Tamala Edwards and Shirleen Allicot, WCAU anchor Renee Chenault-Fattah, KYW anchor Natasha Brown, and WTXF anchor Joyce Evans.
She retired on Wednesday, May 25, 2016. In 2017, she wrote a memoir is titled: "On Camera and Off, When the News is Good and When it's Not". She spent most of 2017 on a regional book tour.
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