Merri Dee Leaves WGN

By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 26, 2008 5:44PM

From the "this makes us feel old" department: Merri Dee, WGN TV's director of community relations since we had the stiff neck and crotch view, is leaving the station to join the leadership council of AARP Illinois.

The 71-year-old Dee is a living legend in Chicago broadcasting, a profession she didn't enter until the age of 30 (at WBEE in suburban Harvey) so she could spend more time with her daughter. She made the switch to television in 1968, hosting her own talk show on Channel 26 and, later, Channel 44.

She's also one of the strongest women you'll ever meet. Her mother died at a young age. Her father remarried; the stepmother sent her to an orphanage, changed Dee's name so no other family members could have contact with her and refused to pay for her education after the age of fourteen. In 1971 Dee and a studio guest were kidnapped at gunpoint, driven to the woods and Dee was shot twice in the head. Dee survived and crawled to the highway for help. Despite bullet fragments in her head causing headaches, Dee fully recovered and became evening anchor at WGN in 1972. She also helped draft the nation's first-ever Victim's Bill of Rights.

Dee became WGN's Director of Community Development in 1983, helping raise $31 million in donations for the station's various charity initiatives. [Tribune, Yahoo, Merrie Dee Biography]