Merri Dee

Dee was born Mary Francine Dorham on October 30, 1936 in Chicago, Illinois, to John Blouin, a postal worker, and Ethel Dorham.Davis, Marianna W. (ed., 1982), [https://books.google.com/books?id=WLDtAAAAMAAJ&q=Merri+Dee++1936 Contributions of Black Women to America: The arts, media, business, law, sports], Kenday Press.Malleggg, Kristin B. (2008), [https://books.google.com/books?id=-jIXAQAAMAAJ&q=Merri+Dee++1936 Who's Who Among African Americans], Gale Research. Her mother went into labor during a trip to Chicago with her husband as they went back and forth between Chicago and New Orleans due to work. She was raised Catholic.Merri Dee (The HistoryMakers A2000.019), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, July 25, 2000, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 4, Merri Dee discusses her Catholic upbringing

After her mother died in 1939, 2-year-old Dee was raised in New Orleans, and her father remarried four years later. The youngest of six children, her stepmother abused her and sent her to an orphanage. Dee described growing up with her stepmother in an interview with Contemporary Black Biography:

I was terrifically abused by her... She adopted me [after Blouin's death] and changed my name so my family couldn't help me. It was horrible.{{cn|date=August 2022}}

Dee returned to Chicago as a teenager and began attending Englewood Technical Prep Academy, graduating in 1955. After high school, Dee returned to New Orleans to attend Xavier University, pursuing a degree in business administration; she eventually dropped out, finding a job as a salesperson with IBM to support her siblings. Dee landed her first hosting job at radio station WBEE, located in Harvey, Illinois.{{cite news |last1=Armentrout |first1=Mitchell |last2=Anthony |first2=Katie |date=March 17, 2022 |url=https://chicago.suntimes.com/obituaries/2022/3/16/22981801/merri-dee-obituary-chicago-wgn-news-anchor-86 |title=Merri Dee, 'homegrown, broadcasting legend' who used her powerful voice to speak for crime victims, dead at 85 |access-date=March 23, 2022 |work=Chicago Sun-Times |language=en}}

In the two years that followed, Dee became a local celebrity in Chicago radio. In 1968, she began hosting an entertainment program on a then-fledgling independent station WCIU (channel 26) on Saturday nights. In 1971, Dee became the host of The Merri Dee Show, a local talk show on then-independent station WSNS (channel 44, now a Telemundo owned-and-operated station).{{cn|date=August 2022}}

On July 17, 1971, Dee and amateur psychic Alan Sandler, a guest on her show, were kidnapped and shot. Sandler died, while Dee survived. The two had gone out to dinner, and upon returning to the WSNS-TV studio, their car was approached by 21-year-old Samuel Drew. Drew then made Dee drive to a remote area, where he shot each of them twice in the back of the head at point-blank range before dumping them out of the car and driving off.[https://books.google.com/books?id=sTcDAAAAMBAJ&dq=Merri+Dee+mother&pg=PA13 "Victim Hints Accomplice In Death Of Guest, Shooting Of Radio-TV Personality"], JET Magazine, August 5, 1971.{{cite news |last1=Ihejirika |first1=Maudlyne |title=Merri Dee: Choice to live the best life was all hers |url=https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2013/6/24/22983237/merri-dee-choice-to-live-best-life-was-all-hers |access-date=March 24, 2022 |work=Chicago Sun-Times |date=June 24, 2013 |language=en}} Dee managed to crawl to a highway, where she was rescued, taken to a hospital, and treated for her wounds. Doctors did not expect her to survive, and Dee was read her last rites twice, once by personal friend Reverend Jesse Jackson.

After a year of recovery from the attack, Dee returned to broadcasting in 1972, becoming an anchor for then-independent station WGN-TV's 10 p.m. newscast. After spending eleven years at WGN-TV in various on-air positions, Dee moved into an off-air position in 1984, becoming the station's director of community development and manager of WGN-TV Children's Charities, where she remained until she retired from the station in the fall of 2008, helping raise $31 million in donations for the station's various charity initiatives during that tenure. Dee subsequently joined the Mayor's Advisory Council on Women for the City of Chicago[http://corporate.tribune.com/pressroom/?p=1372 WGN-TV Director of Community Relations Merri Dee Leaves WGN-TV ...] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110217041718/http://corporate.tribune.com/pressroom/?p=1372 |date=February 17, 2011 }}, Tribune Company, Retrieved January 31, 2011.{{cite web|url=http://www.chicagodefender.com/article-1667-merri-dee-leaving-wgn-after-nearly-four-decades.html |title=Merri Dee leaving WGN after nearly four decades |accessdate=January 20, 2014 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120612132914/http://www.chicagodefender.com/article-1667-merri-dee-leaving-wgn-after-nearly-four-decades.html |archivedate=June 12, 2012 }}, Chicago Defender, Retrieved January 31, 2011. and became a member of the volunteer Executive Council of the Illinois chapter of AARP, before being appointed AARP State President a year later.[http://chicagoist.com/2008/08/26/merri_dee_leaves_wgn.php Merri Dee Leaves WGN] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080919122944/http://chicagoist.com/2008/08/26/merri_dee_leaves_wgn.php |date=September 19, 2008 }}, Chicagoist. Retrieved January 31, 2011.

In addition to her television and radio work, Dee has also served in various capacities as a part of several charities and organizations. Dee helped draft the country's first-ever Victims' Bill of Rights in 1992, passed by the Illinois state legislature, and served as a model for other states to pass their own victim's rights legislation. She founded the Chicago-based program Athletes for a Better Education. Dee served as the television host of the United Negro College Fund's "Evening of Stars" fundraiser for over two decades and also hosted telethons benefiting Easter Seals. Dee also developed "The Waiting Child", an on-air segment broadcast on WGN-TV, highlighting children in the child placement system needing adoptive homes. The initiative earned Dee several awards, including being honored with the Adoption Excellence Award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2004.{{cn|date=August 2022}}

Then-Illinois governor Jim Edgar gave Dee and WGN-TV a commendation in 1998 for contributing to a 50 percent increase in the number of adoptions in the state.[http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=11&category=mediaMakers Merri Dee Biography], The History Makers, Retrieved January 31, 2011. In 2000, she was honored with an honorary Doctorate of Humanities by Lewis University; the following year, Dee won the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Silver Circle Award. The University of Illinois' Center on Women and Gender also honored Dee with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003; and in 2004, she was honored with a President's Award by the United Negro College Fund.{{cn|date=August 2022}}

Dee also served as an executive board member for the Ronald McDonald House Charities, Junior Achievement Worldwide, and the Associated Colleges of Illinois; as board member for The National College Summit and member of the Illinois State Attorney's Council on Violence. In January 2011, Dee became one of six inductees into the National Association of Black Journalists’ Hall of Fame.[http://wowelle.com/2011/01/28/radio-d-j-tv-reporter-extraordinaire-merri-dee-to-be-inducted-into-journalism-hall-of-fame/ "Radio D.J, TV reporter extraordinaire Merri Dee to be inducted into Journalism Hall of Fame"], WowElle, January 28, 2011. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110131055055/http://wowelle.com/2011/01/28/radio-d-j-tv-reporter-extraordinaire-merri-dee-to-be-inducted-into-journalism-hall-of-fame/ |date=January 31, 2011 }}. Retrieved January 31, 2011.

Dee married twice and had two children. Her first marriage was in her late teens and produced a daughter, Toya Monet. She also had an adopted son, attorney Richard H. Wright. Dee was married to her second husband, Nicolas Fulop, from 1999 until her death which was reported on March 16, 2022;{{cite web |title=Former WGN-TV anchor, reporter Merri Dee dies at 86 |url=https://wgntv.com/news/former-wgn-tv-anchor-reporter-merri-dee-dies-at-86/ |date=March 16, 2022 |publisher=WGN |access-date=March 16, 2022}} according to family members, she had died overnight in her sleep at home.

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Category:1936 births

Category:2022 deaths

Category:American television news anchors

Category:American television reporters and correspondents

Category:African-American women journalists

Category:African-American journalists

Category:American women philanthropists

Category:Columbia College Chicago alumni

Category:Englewood Technical Prep Academy alumni

Category:Journalists from Illinois

Category:Philanthropists from Illinois

Category:Television anchors from Chicago

Category:Television anchors from New Orleans

Category:Xavier University alumni