WGN-TV personality Merri Dee appears at a 2018 WINGS benefit fashion show in Hoffman Estates. Dee was a fierce advocate for victims of violent crime.
Merri Dee, a fixture on Chicago TV screens for decades as a reporter and anchor for WGN-TV, has died at 85, the news station reported Wednesday.
A trailblazing broadcaster who won the hearts of Chicagoans while hosting public affairs shows and pulling lottery numbers over a 43-year tenure at WGN, Dee also was a fierce advocate for victims of violent crime following her own near-death brush with a kidnapper while she worked at another television station.
“If you’re going to live, you have to be determined to live,” she wrote in her 2013 memoir, “Life Lessons on Faith, Forgiveness & Grace.”
“If you have any kind of trauma, you have to tell yourself you don’t deserve worse, you deserve better.”
Dee died in her sleep at her home, according to a family message posted on her website.
• For the full report, visit chicago.suntimes.com.
