Legendary Chicago Newsman Joel Daly Dies At 86

CHICAGO — Joel Daly, a news anchor for Chicago's ABC7 for almost four decades, has died at age 86, ABC7 reports. He had been in hospice care at his daughter's home after being diagnosed with vascular parkinsonism, according to the Chicago Tribune.

“He died peacefully,” his daughter told the paper. “This is the way I believe he wanted his life to end, and he was able to see his beloved dog.”

Born Aug. 21, 1934, in Great Falls, Montana, Daly launched his career in radio in Cleveland, Ohio, before moving to Chicago for a job at the local ABC station. He began with 15-minute news broadcasts in 1967, went on to anchor the station's Eyewitness News program at 4 p.m. — alongside Oprah Winfrey for a short stint — and made more than 50 appearances in Chicago's annual St. Patrick's Day Parade, quickly becoming a pillar of the community.

Among his many journalism and television awards — Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame, National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Silver Circle, five Emmys — Daly was most proud of his Emmy for writing.

"My most treasured award is the Emmy I got for writing. Not performing, not reporting, but writing. I did commentaries for 10 years, and I submitted it to the academy, and I have an Emmy sitting on my shelf and it says for writing," Daly said, according to ABC7.

Daly was also a pioneer of conversational banter between news, weather and sports anchors — a feature of most modern news broadcasts.

"We came down from Olympus, and we just became regular people talking to regular people," Daly said. "It's the best form of communication."

His so-called "happy talk" with sports anchor Bill Frink and weatherman John Coleman would influence how news was broadcast across the country for years to come.

"I guess the breakthrough innovation was we broke down the walls between the news, weather and the sports that I think were traditionally separated by commercials, and then the personalities doing those segments were able to communicate one with the other," Daly said, according to ABC7. "So it wasn't until it developed here in Chicago and infected the country that it became a family kind of thing."

Nonetheless, he always took the news seriously, even if he didn't take himself too seriously, Daly said.

Daly wasn't just known for his work in the news. He was a country singer, pilot and author. He went to law school, played Atticus Finch in a production of "To Kill a Mockingbird," and even dabbled in yodeling.

He said being involved in the news, not just reading it, gave him added credibility.

Daly retired from ABC in 2005.

“The news has changed since the old days,” Daly told Chicago media blogger Robert Feder at the time. “I used to say the news was an ‘island in a sea of entertainment.’ Now the beaches are sorely deteriorated if not washed away. I can’t say it was more fun in the old days. I think it was more work."