WTVC Chattanooga news anchor MaryEllen Locher, 45, died June 9 of cancer, only two days after announcing she would have to retire from the station during this, her third bout with the disease.
Locher first joined the station as a health reporter in 1985.
Locher's cancer first surfaced 16 years ago, and led her to speak out about it to civic groups, as well as to found the Hats from the Heart program, giving out free hats to cancer patients who had lost their hair, and the Children of Breast Cancer (www.childrenofbreastcancer.org) foundation to help raise money for kids who had lost a mother to breast cancer.
The inaugural recipient of the scholarship--started in 2002--is now a junior at the University of Tennessee, studying to be a broadcaster.
Locher also recently had a breast cancer center at a local hospital named for her. She is survived by her husband, David, and son, Alex.
