She hosted a three-hour talk show at the now-defunct public radio station KBDY and a four-hour show at KXOK talk radio. She insisted upon paying full restitution although the court required only $50,000, and lived in a halfway house for six months while continuing to work. Mercantile Bank mistakenly credited her account with $111,000. White Clatto seemed less perturbed about a 1988 larceny charge. She said the experience caused some bitterness, but she speculated in a 2005 Post-Dispatch story that she’d probably do it all over again.Ĭredit Provided by the family Dianne White Clatto Her case was settled for more than $110,000. Louis claiming harassment and age discrimination. White Clatto was earning around $40,000 a year when she was fired from KSDK in 1986. “She reacted (very well) to all kinds of things and subjects that were thrown at her.” “She was a ball of fire, no question about it,” said KSDK archivist Bob Garger in The Weather Channel tribute. She reported the weather for 12 years, and when “weathergirls” were replaced by mostly male meteorologists, she moved adroitly into reporting hard news and features. “So up I got, took the shower, put fresh makeup on, and Chip and I were on television,” she told the Post-Dispatch in 1996.Īnd for more than 25 years, there she remained. Four hours after he was born, a Channel 5 camera crew was in her hospital room. Louisans couldn’t imagine television without her. White Clatto not only persevered, she thrived – and won over her audience.īy the time her son was born in 1967, most St. Unbeknownst to her then, she was competing with three others, including Mary Frann, who later starred as the wife of Bob Newhart on the television show Newhart.Ĭredit KSDK NewsChannel 5 Dianne White Clattoīut Mrs. Bandleader Russ David was so impressed with an impromptu performance with his orchestra on the Admiral showboat that he told Harold Grams, then general manager of KSD-TV, to consider her for TV stations’ latest trend: “weathergirl.” She was also working as a city manager for Avon and doing a bit singing on the side. White Clatto landed her first media job in 1960, as an on-air host for a 90-minute, live radio show that aired on stations in St. She chuckled as she recalled being told, “Preferably, something about the weather.” Her first time on Channel 5’s set, she said, she asked what she was supposed to say. White Clatto admitted as much during a February interview with The Weather Channel. “She stumbled into modeling and then stumbled into TV,” said Chip Porterfield Clatto, Mrs. She had planned, she said, to be a psychiatric social worker. Louis airwaves for more than 40 years in both television and radio. She was 77.Ī rare beauty with a distinctive voice, Mrs. White Clatto had been a longtime resident of the Central West End. She died on Monday (May 4, 2015), at McCormack House on Olive near Vandeventer, a short distance and a world away from where she grew up on Vandeventer and Cook in north St. Two short years later, Mrs White Clatto joined what was then KSD-TV (now KSDK NewsChannel 5), becoming the first full-time African-American weathercaster in the country. Louis to model for Stix, Baer & Fuller and Saks Fifth Avenue. That same year, she became the first African American in St. Louis native graduated from the University of Missouri at Columbia, where she was among the first handful of black students. Louis’ own embodiment of civil rights history. As the tumultuous ’60s descended upon the nation, Dianne White Clatto emerged unwittingly and unceremoniously as St.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |