Diane Sawyer

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Sawyer was born in Glasgow, Kentucky, to Jean W. (née Dunagan), an elementary school teacher, and Erbon Powers "Tom" Sawyer, a county judge. Her father was killed in a car accident on Louisville's Interstate 64 in 1969; E. P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park is named in his honor. She attended Seneca High School in Louisville, serving as editor-in-chief for her yearbook, The Arrow. In 1963, she won the America's Junior Miss scholarship pageant representing Kentucky, winning by her strength of poise in the final interview and her essay comparing Civil War music. From 1963 to 1965, she toured the country to promote the Coca-Cola Pavilion at the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1967. After college, she worked as a weather forecaster for WLKY-TV in Louisville, finding the weather boring and occasionally adding quotes to keep it interesting. In 1970, she moved to Washington, D.C., and became an assistant to White House deputy press secretary Jerry Warren. She rose to become a staff assistant to President Richard Nixon. In 1973, when John Dean testified to the Senate Watergate Committee, Sawyer and Larry Speakes were assigned to Nixon's lawyer J. Fred Buzhardt to "prove" Dean was lying. Speakes later claimed he concluded Dean had not lied and informed Sawyer, but they continued their efforts. After Nixon's resignation, she worked on the Nixon-Ford transition team, then followed Nixon to California to help him write RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, published in 1978, and helped prepare him for his 1977 interviews with David Frost. Years later, Rabbi Baruch Korff said on his deathbed he believed Sawyer was Deep Throat; Sawyer laughed it off and became one of six people to request and receive a public denial from Bob Woodward. Deep Throat was later identified as W. Mark Felt in 2005.

Reader's Guide

Diane Sawyer's career spans both political and broadcast journalism. She joined CBS News in 1978 as a general-assignment reporter, was promoted to political correspondent in February 1980, and became co-anchor of the expanded CBS morning news show on September 28, 1981. Ratings initially boosted upon her arrival but did not last; after Bill Kurtis replaced Charles Kuralt, ratings decreased further, and Sawyer asked to be reassigned in 1984. In 1984, she became the first female correspondent on 60 Minutes. She moved to ABC News in 1989 to co-anchor Primetime Live with Sam Donaldson, which they co-anchored from 1989 to 1998, then its successor 20/20 Wednesday from 1998 to 2000. On January 18, 1999, she returned to morning news as co-anchor of Good Morning America with Charles Gibson, a position she held for nearly eleven years. Sawyer was the first to announce to GMA viewers that the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. She achieved worldwide acclaim after subjecting Mel Gibson to an intense television interrogation following his 2006 DUI arrest. On September 2, 2009, she was announced as successor to Charles Gibson as anchor of ABC World News, starting December 21, 2009. Ratings initially rose 8% after her first four weeks, averaging 8.8 million viewers. She signed off each broadcast with "I'll see you right back here tomorrow night." She stepped down from the anchor chair in September 2014 and remained with ABC News to focus on creating specials and conducting high-profile interviews. Her career timeline includes: 1967–70 WLKY-TV reporter; 1970–74 White House press aide; 1974–78 literary assistant to Nixon; 1978–81 CBS News reporter; 1981–84 CBS Morning co-anchor; 1984–89 60 Minutes correspondent; 1989–98 Primetime Live co-anchor; 1998–present 20/20 correspondent; 1999–2009 Good Morning America co-anchor; 2000–06 Primetime co-anchor; 2009–2014 ABC World News anchor; September 2014–present ABC News special contributor.

Did You Know?

• Sawyer won the America's Junior Miss scholarship pageant in 1963 representing Kentucky, winning by her strength of poise in the final interview and her essay comparing Civil War music.
• She was assigned in 1973 to help prove John Dean was lying during the Watergate hearings, but Larry Speakes later claimed he concluded Dean had not lied and informed Sawyer.
• Rabbi Baruch Korff said on his deathbed he believed Sawyer was Deep Throat; she requested and received a public denial from Bob Woodward.
• Sawyer was the first to announce to Good Morning America viewers that the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
• She signed off her ABC World News broadcasts with the line 'I'll see you right back here tomorrow night.'