World News – US – Legendary Chicago TV presenter Joel Daly, 86

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He helped build an audience juggernaut at WLS-TV, as part of a TV news happy talk revolution that initially saw him paired on air with Fahey Flynn, John Coleman and Bill Frink

Joel Daly, a trusted Chicago news anchor for nearly 40 years and one of the mainstays of a WLS-Channel 7 news dynasty, has died at age 86, the station said Thursday.

He was diagnosed with vascular parkinsonism last year, a condition that led to mini-strokes, according to his daughter Kelly

Mister Daly’s authority with viewers was evident after graduating in 1988 from Chicago-Kent College of Law and defending a client in court A candidate juror was removed from his post because he said he did not think he could be impartial, telling the judge: “I believe all that Mr. Daly says « 

From 1968, M Daly helped build an audience juggernaut at Chicago’s ABC station, where his « Eyewitness News » association with fellow legendary Chicago news anchor Fahey Flynn and meteorologist John Coleman and sportsman Bill Frink was based on a popular approach dubbed, somewhat derisively, by others like « happy talk », mixing a lot of chatter in the middle of the news of the day

The label didn’t bother him As Mr. Daly said in his 2014 autobiography « The Daly News »: « Everyone was happily talking about us »

Towards the end of his career, Mr. Linda Yu, former ABC-7 co-host of Daly, paid tribute to his remarkable longevity, saying he had lasted through « eight CEOs, 11 news directors and over 10,000 news broadcasts. »

The Montana native was a magna cum laude graduate of Yale University with a polite but warm on-air personality, learned but downstairs at home Beaming with intelligence and still appearing at ease, he won five Chicago TV Emmys for reporting and writing

He was also a talented yodeler who charmed audiences with his side gig as a singer with country band Sundowners

“We’re just communicating,” he once said in an interview with Chicago-Kent alumni, “that I sing a song or sing a song in a courtroom for judge a case or make the news on television « 

In the army, M Daly was sent to broadcast school at Fort Slocum in New York, then, while stationed in Panama in the late 1950s, did radio in the morning and television at night, begging listeners by « Live Gaily with Daly »

After his release he landed jobs in Cleveland at WEWS-TV and WJW-TV m Daly covered the electrifying Beatles tour of the United States in 1964 He interviewed the segregationist government of Alabama George Wallace and Reverend Martin Luther King jr

In his book, he recalled that King told him: « We will live together as brothers or perish together as fools »

He also covered the high-profile trial of Dr Sam Sheppard, who was convicted in 1954 of murdering his wife, but later exonerated – an affair that inspired the TV series and film « The Fugitive »

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In 1967 he was hired by what was then WBKB-TV, the old WLS-TV phone calls, and he and his wife Suzon « Sue » Daly moved into a house in LaGrange designed by Frank Lloyd Wright , whom he had interviewed at university

When he started his new job, “I was driving a small MGB sports car,” he writes in his book, “and I was terrified of all the trucks pushing me off the freeway on the way to work « 

Meeting with Mayor Richard J Daley, he told him he misspelled his last name

Mr Daly wrote and delivered frequent commentaries on the news, sometimes leading to threats from angry viewers When this happened, he told the Sun-Times in 2015, he was advising Suzon to move temporarily: « I would say to him: ‘Go to so and so’ s house until I get home »

After King’s assassination in 1968, he published an op-ed in which he said: « A man of peace has died and violence was not his legacy Flags at mid-range; rifles at high port What a sad and sobering comment The United States of America, deeply divided The so-called land of the free, true land of fear Someone has to listen « 

During the trial of protesters arrested for conspiring to riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, after US District Judge Julius Hoffman ordered defendant Bobby Seale to tie up and gag, Mr. Daly said in a comment that it was « a shameful picture to show the world of A man, presumably innocent until proven guilty, tied up and gagged, a spectacle that pokes fun at the very stakes of the trial »

Born in Great Falls, MT, young Joel learned yodelling from a farmer His father Joseph landed a job in San Francisco as a sales manager at a Chevrolet dealership, but as the family was on his way to California, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor With that, her mother Viola refused to allow the family to continue beyond Spokane, Washington, fearing the West Coast was too vulnerable.

Times were sometimes tough for M Daly’s family growing up in Washington According to his daughter, he stole apples from the orchard for food

His high school debate teacher, Grace Becher, encouraged him to apply for scholarships, which led him to a full commute to attend Yale, where he studied literature and worked for the station. WYBC college radio, interviewing visitors to the university including Wright and Jayne Mansfield

In 1955, he met his future wife at the McCabe department store in Rock Island, Ill., during a lunch break after a summer job at WHBF – TV He loved the way she chomped him on his set for hot weather: Bermuda shorts combined with long black socks

The Dalys were a team When they got to their getaway in Delavan, Wisconsin, she drove so he could study his law books. It took four years of night school and two summers, but he got his law degree in his mid fifties

Mister Daly loved the super country group The Highwaymen: Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson While playing, Mr. Daly liked to end his sets with « Why Me, Lord » by Kristofferson « 

After meeting the Sundowners at the old downtown Double-R Ranch club, the band performed together for charity Once the band opened for Kenny Rogers He also helped bring Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers in Chicago before many knew who the country music stars were

In 2001, he played attorney Atticus Finch in a mock trial to publicize the choice of « To Kill a Mockingbird » for the city’s « One Book, One Chicago » reading promotion

He worked for Chicago law firm Corboy & Demetrio, handled First Amendment cases with attorney Burton Joseph and also used his retirement from television to add a little bit of body adornment

« He and my mom were driving and he said, ‘You know what, I think I’m going to get my ear pierced,’ said Kelly Daly » It was an emerald We got it called her Irish bling « 

He loved dogs All of his were rescues He named a guy after Jeff Bridges’ character in « The Big Lebowski », one of his favorite movies

Mr. Daly was a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association and once decided, after seeing a Christen Eagle aircraft, to build one himself from a kit His daughter said it took three years, but he finished it and later donated it to National Lewis University, for which he was a board member

He asked for his ashes to be scattered where he learned to fly: Clow International Airport in Bolingbrook

Son Doug Daly died of asthma attack in his early fifties Mr. Daly was open about the addiction issues of his son Scott, who died in his early forties.In addition to his daughter Kelly, he is survived by his sister Viola Patrice Kraus and his granddaughters Kate Scott Daly and Madison Daly

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A semi-truck accident temporarily cut off all lanes on northbound Dan Ryan at around 3:15 a.m. near 18th Street

The Wilmette native, who worked as a computer programmer, went to San Francisco and « helped square dance the west coast »

At approximately 11:20 pm the 19-year-old was driving a Hyundai sedan south on Lake Shore Drive when he lost control in the 2400 block of North Lake Shore Drive and crashed into the median wall

James Murphy, 21, reportedly opened fire on the pair from a vehicle as they stood on a porch in the 900 block of North Lawndale Avenue, police said

Joel Daly, Fahey Flynn, Chicago news anchor