Public Memorial Service To Be Held To Honor Denise D’Ascenzo

BRANFORD, CT — A public memorial service will be held later this month at the Connecticut Convention Center to remember legendary Channel 3 news anchor and Branford resident Denise D’Ascenzo, who passed away in December.

WFSB-TV, where the popular D’Ascenzo worked for more than three decades, announced details of the service on its website.

“Please join us as we celebrate the life and memory of Denise D’Ascenzo. A memorial service in her honor will take place on January 29th at 1 p.m. at the Connecticut Convention Center. Seating is limited. Up to two tickets will be provided."

Details on registering for tickets can be found at WFSB’s website here. (An earlier version of this story indicated tickets were being sold. That was an error. You just need to register for tickets.)

“We look forward to remembering Denise with you.”

D'Ascenzo died, her family said, after suffering a massive heart attack at the age of 61.

Her sudden death shocked her thousands of fans throughout the state and brought many tributes from her fellow news journalists to politicians.

Those tributes included her family’s town of Branford, where the Representative Town Meeting stopped its regular business during its most recent meeting to hold a solemn "moment of silence" for D’Ascenzo.

Gov. Ned Lamont described her as a "Connecticut news legend."

"As the longest-serving news anchor at a single television station in Connecticut, Denise D'Ascenzo has entered millions of homes in our state for more than thirty years. Through her dedicated work and dependable reporting, she earned the distinction of being a trusted name in journalism, and her reporting most certainly made an impact," Lamont said.

D'Ascenzo began at WFSB-TV in 1986. She's been honored with two Edward R. Murrow awards, seven Associated Press awards, and a national Gabriel Award. In 2013, Denise was elected to the Silver Circle, a prestigious honor bestowed by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for significant contributions to broadcasting. Two years later, she became the first woman to be inducted into the Connecticut Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame. Denise was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Quinnipiac University.

She has also been recognized for her work with a number of charities including the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Mary's Place and the Channel 3 Kids Camp.

Born in Washington, DC and grew up in suburban Rockville, Maryland, at 12, she launched the first newspaper at her grammar school. She went on to become editor-in-chief of her high school newspaper and the first person to receive a scholarship from the American Newspaper Women's Club to attend a summer journalism program at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

She worked in St. Louis as a reporter and talk show host at KSDK-TV. But the city that launched her career was Syracuse, New York. She landed her first television job at WIXT-TV in Syracuse, doing the nightly weather forecast while she finished her senior year at Syracuse University. Upon graduating Magna Cum Laude with dual degrees in broadcast journalism and political science, Denise was hired full time as a reporter and weathercaster.

She left her post as anchor of the news at WJKW in Cleveland to marry Wayne Cooke and move to Branford. They are parents of daughter Kathryn.

With reporting by Ellyn Santiago, Patch Staff