Monica Pearson '75A
By Ron Cooper
Long-time Atlanta anchor is forever grateful
Atlanta news anchor Monica Pearson has interviewed Jimmy Carter, Michael Jordan, Denzel Washington and Dolly Parton. A mainstay at ABC affiliate WSB-TV for 32 years, she has earned 28 Emmys for her extraordinary work.
But Pearson, 59, has never let it go to her head. And she knows exactly whom to credit for her success.
"It's all because of a mother's prayers," says Pearson, formerly known professionally as Monica Kaufman. "She's the one who really pushed me. She did it all in a way that made me feel that I could conquer anybody and anything.
"Mom hocked her engagement ring to pay for my tuition to Presentation Academy," she adds. "After graduation (in 1965) I earned enough money in my jobs to get it out of hock. I told her, 'Never hock your ring again.' "
The UofL English major is forever grateful to her mother, Hattie Edmondson, and feels fortunate in being able to repay her kindness.
The 84-year-old Edmondson has lived with Pearson for the past 18 years.
"Her favorite saying is, 'What you do with what you have makes you what you are,' " Pearson says.
The UofL alumna spent the first 27 years of her life in Louisville, setting the stage for a stellar journalism career. It began with a teen column that she wrote for the Louisville Defender newspaper. Later, she was a reporter for the Louisville Times and a reporter and anchor for WHAS-TV.
"I got some really good breaks early in my career," she says.
But the biggest break of all came in 1975 following graduation from UofL when she joined WSB as an anchor for the 6 o'clock news. She was the first African American and first woman to anchor an early evening newscast in Atlanta.
Over the years, Pearson has interviewed numerous celebrities and political leaders and has traveled the world in search of a good story. In 2002, she went to Oslo, Norway, with former President Jimmy Carter when he received the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2004 she made a goodwill trip to Africa with Andrew Young, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Last year she met Hank Williams Jr. for her program Monica Pearson's Closeups and learned that an African American man had taught Hank Williams Sr. to pick a guitar. On other Closeups, she and Dolly Parton giggled like little girls and singer Tony Bennett gave her voice lessons.
Her crowning achievement came in 1992, when the Women's Sports Foundation presented her with the Women's Sports Journalism Award for local television reporting on the Georgia High School Association.
In its 87-year history, the association had never had a woman on its executive committee and did not have cheerleading and soccer as competitive sports statewide. Pearson's reporting changed all of that. "I'm proudest of those stories," she says.
Pearson has won many awards, but her greatest victory probably came on an intensely personal level—when she defeated breast cancer. She was diagnosed with the disease on her 50th birthday. She went public, encouraging women to get mammograms.
"Why did this happen to me?" she asked. "So that I could be a voice for others. I was never worried because God never gives you more than you can handle. That's really true."
Women have given her positive feedback, some claiming that Pearson's spotlight on the importance of mammograms saved their lives. Cancer-free now, Pearson says she is grateful for that, and for many other things, too.
One is her education at the University of Louisville.
"I have fond memories of UofL," she says. "I can remember sitting on the Quadrangle reading as if it were yesterday. I can remember when UofL won the NIT at Christmas and what an unbelievable basketball team we had. And I can remember studying at Masterson's and eating at White Castle's on Eastern Parkway."
She recalls competing in the Miss University of Louisville pageant in 1966 and 1967. There were no black fraternities on campus, and Pearson needed a sponsor. Happily for her, a white fraternity, Delta Upsilon, backed her.
"That was just unheard of for that time," she says.
Pearson was very active in extracurricular activities on campus. She was a cheerleader on the basketball team, a member of Angel Flight (a ROTC-style program) and worked on the college newspaper and yearbook.
"I'm very proud for people to know that I got my education at the University of Louisville," she says.
Pearson notes that she intends to work behind the WSB anchor desk until age 65, then spend more time with her family. Husband John Pearson Sr. is an assistant police chief of DeKalb County, Ga., and her daughter Claire Kaufman, 26, is an industrial sales representative who lives in Atlanta.
She also plans to travel to Cameroon, a country on the western edge of the African continent and home to her maternal ancestors. A DNA sample from her mother established the link.
Recently, the Cameroon community in Atlanta honored Pearson, presenting her with native garb and recipes.
