Jessica Savitch, RIP

I recently became intrigued by a freak drowning accident that happened on Oct 23, 1983 in New Hope, PA (about a half hour from where I live). I investigated the details online and discovered a lot about the victim, Jessica Savitch, the first major female news anchor on American television. I visited the site of her death in September and took all the photos shown here (photo of Savitch is from FindAGrave.com).

On the last night of Savitch's life, she ate at Odette's Restaurant in New Hope. (Odette's is now closed due to excessive flooding, but I think they have plans to reopen in a few years.) It was a rainy night when she left with her date, who was also in the news business. He drove out the wrong exit, even though there were signs posted - I guess it was too dark and stormy to notice them though. As they drove down the old tow path, the car fell into the Delaware Canal, which runs parallel to the path, flipping over in the process. Mud and water sealed the doors shut, so neither could escape. Savitch's husky dog was also with them.

Later, the coroners confirmed that no drugs/alcohol were present. Savitch was cremated.






On Wikipedia, I found that Up Close and Personal is loosely based on Savitch's life. After watching the movie, the only things that seemed true to Savitch's real life were the difficulties of being a female anchor in a patriarchal industry. She had to work extra hard to be taken seriously, had to deal with discrimination, etc. And the ending of the movie was quite different from the ending of Savitch's life. However, the violent scenes in Philadelphia were very authentic.
At "We the Media", it explains why Disney made such drastic changes to the movie. I love Disney (I especially admire their early animated movies such as Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid), but their reasoning doesn't seem so surprising:

"Disney, with its family reputation was also uncomfortable with Savitch’s addiction to cocaine. The transformation had begun… Savitch had once had an affair with CBS newscaster Ed Bradley, and we surmised that the interracial nature of that relationship might be another source of discomfort for Disney’s core audience. Her abortions could also pose a problem, as could her two marriages, especially the second to a gay gynecologist who, less than a year after they married, hanged himself from a cross-beam in the basement of her Philadelphia home.” (Dunne, 1997, p. 19-20)

I still admire her, though I feel sorry for her - she had a tough life. I wonder where she would be now, if not for this accident...