"An aspect of his personality that I think propelled him was his grace. Because I wouldnt have been able to look at them. Associate Producers But now, theres the dimension of peacefulness that he has learned to go out and get for himself. It was, Let me get through this next 30 minutes.. His friends hustled him away, but later that night he heard a description of himself being broadcast on the radio. The point is to manage them, to control them and not let them control you., IT TOOK A WHILE for Vance to regain his standing with the audience. Ed Bradley, who adored baby Dawn, often took her for the day, driving her around in his convertible. But I had this incredible dark side. A DC news legend and a cherished member of our NBC family. My uncles were all Depression people, he says. We'll miss you Jim. Once I owed about $2,500, and I drove up to Philly on a weekday to see my aunts and uncles. I felt he had to have somebody in his corner.. I would make a couple of zip guns or zappers the same night I had done well on an SAT test. Menu. There were times when I had people after me with guns. I got way too much respect for kids to do that. They were often simply called Jim and Doreen.. Beginning at NBC4 Washington as a trainee reporter, in her more than 20 years at NBC 4 Washington, she rose through the ranks as news writer, show producer, executive producer, and ultimately Director of Programming, Community Affairs and Broadcast Standards. Station executives tend to credit Gentzler with softening Vance, but the truth is probably more layered. And I thought, Lord, give me strength., As it turned out, all Marion really wanted was to ask me about my experiene in treatment, what the best facilities were, and what I thought he should consider doing. I didnt love them for it then.. I wanted to be dangerous.. I would get so much advice, mostly from well-meaning blacks, about where I should go and what I should wear and what I should do.. We got thousands of angry letters, recalls Channel 4 operations manager Joel Albert. When I bought that Mercedes, the first six months with that car, each day I threatened to take it back. Aunt Vivie didnt get mad even when she lent him her car and he smashed it up. In 1978, he separated from Barbarathey didnt divorce until 1984and moved to an apartment on Columbia Road in Adams Morgan. Vance revealed publicly in May that he was battling cancer, although he didnt reveal the kind. I always had a reservation or a condition. . And I remember people telling me I shouldnt go to the bars on 14th Street. And that was the way it was with me. We had a hard time finding a football helmet big enough to fit him, laughs Vance. Or, viewers can watch it online at kcet.org. Before that, she was director of. The third time, Ill never forget. Oh, I had girls around me like flies around honey. Movies. No faithful Channel 4 viewer is likely to forget how excited he got a couple of years ago when then-President George Bush accepted his offer to show him some good fishing spots on the Potomac. A DC news legend and a cherished member of our NBC family. He earns a ton of money. He chafes at the changes he has seen at Channel 4, which has lost many of its most experienced reporters, writers, and producers in recent years. RIP and condolences to his family, friends & NBC4 family, Chris Kinard (@ChrisKinard) July 22, 2017, So sad to hear of Jim Vance's passing. pic.twitter.com/463yz2huj1, washingtondc (@washingtondc) July 22, 2017. Only one white kid ever invited me to his house the whole time I was in junior high and high school, Vance says. When I was with him, I had the feeling of being loved and cherished and protected. He told The Post of his children, They are three incredibly bright kids who have no time or interest in watching local TV news., #DC is mourning the loss of icon Jim Vance. I drank it and fell off, and it was a long time before I had a drink again. And they were all scared to death for me. [4] It was at Cheyney where Vance became a lifelong member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and built a life-long friendship with Ed Bradley. True, they both frequented the smoky, late-night bars on Capitol Hill in the early 80s, places like the Gandy Dancer where people played backgammon till dawn and sometimes did cocaine. When Barry called that night, I had to ask somebody where his house was., On the way out the Southeast-Southwest Freeway, Vance was dreading the encounter, unable to think of what to say or do that might be helpful. And I tell them just like that, not to get down and hip with them, but to make it plain. I mean there were two guns on the table. To this day, I dont know why I didnt pull the trigger, but I dont believe it has much to do with me. That night, I came back to the station, did the news, left at 11:30, and instead of turning right out of the parking light, I turned left and went straight to my dealer.. And I love them for that now. His children are grown and doing well. Vances 11pm newscasts with Gentzler regularly drew more viewers than the prime-time shows of the three major cable news networks combined (CNN, Fox and MSNBC). That was soso nice.. I love that roar, that vibration when I get up to certain speeds. The rest of it was sharing the pain.. Late in May he picked up the Washington Post Style section, and there was a huge picture of him above the fold. Our kids had to speak proper English, says Vivien Cherry. . They were just like roaches, skittering every time the light went on in the kitchen. With no money for babysitters, he used to take Dawn to school with him. While Vance was away, Van Messel urged his friends to write to him, telling him why he needed to get well and come back. I didnt get drunk for the first time until I was 16 years old. Until the late 1940s, his neighborhood was mostly white, and he played with kids who had names like Bongiovani and OBoyle. For more than 45 years, Jim Vance was not only the soul of NBC4 but of the entire Washington area, NBC4 president Jackie Bradford said in a statement. He moved to Potomac and broke up with Kathy. One day, he says, he sounded like Walter Cronkite. That Monday, when he went back to work, he was still upset. [3] His father, James Vance Jr., was a veteran of World War II. Back then, if a girl got pregnant, you married her, he says. Shirlyn Cesar has over 10 years experience working in scripted television, in Los Angeles, New York and Atlanta, on programs such as Blue Bloods, Marvels Daredevil, and Seven Seconds. The rest of them thought I was crazy or dangerous. In the living room, Vance sprawls on the white leather sectional sofa, chain-smoking Camels. I still thought I was in control. I consider without a shadow of a doubt that it was simply and purely the grace of God. Vance, 75, died on July 22 just over two months after revealing to viewers that he was battling cancer. I used to walk through the house and somebody would inevitably do this he gets up to illustrate a swift slapping motion starting at the midriff and ending under the chin meaning, Straighten up. He and Kathy like to play tennis, usually on the public courts on Van Ness Street, or go to a movie. You make sure your kids have something to eat if they want it., AT WRC, some colleagues, especially those who had been forced to cover for Vance for so long, were angry at him for blowing so many chances. She has a law degree from Howard University and a degree in speech and communications from George Washington University, according to LinkedIn. Executive Producer Michelle Merker. Would love your thoughts, please comment. At 4:30 that morning, he went home, crept into the house so Kathy wouldnt hear him, and got his hunting shotgun. And how wonderful it is not to feel that I have to be something I cant ever be. . So did Little Jimmy James H. Vance III. Trending. One was, Youre a real clever guy. In the past he always had to be on the go, doing speeches, doing work, and what not. All I do is tell them my story. Reading that was one of the hardest things Ive ever had to do in my whole life. THE BEST PARTS of Vances adolescence were sportshe ran track and played on the football and basketball teamsand music. Rescott, Jacqueline, "Vance Cites Drug Problem: WRC Anchor Takes Leave for Treatment Vance Cites Drug Problem". She began her career as a reporter for NBC television stations in New Orleans, Cleveland and Chicago. [18] [19] He had one stepson (Brendon b. Vance has become very mellow, very sweet, very gentle in the past few years, says Kathy McCampbell. "Channel 4 anchor Jim Vance tells colleagues he has cancer", National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame, Jim Vance, Washingtons longest-serving local news anchor, is dead at 75, "Little Known Black History Fact: Remembering Jim Vance", "Jim Vance, George Michael Laugh as Model Falls on Runway", Jim Vance Interview: Washington's Favorite Newscaster on the Iffy State of TV, the Booming State of DC, and Whether You Can Do Too Much Weather Coverage, NBC4's Jim Vance and Doreen Gentzler Unscripted Moments, "Jim & Doreen: NBC4's top-rated anchors are still leading the pack after 25 years", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jim_Vance&oldid=1124051319, African-American television personalities, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania alumni, Articles with dead external links from February 2020, Articles with permanently dead external links, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 27 November 2022, at 02:40. She also lectures frequently on the subject to architectural and preservation groups. His 1989 pairing with Doreen Gentzler helped put the newscast in first place for more than 25 years, reported The Post. Or my 35th.. He was trying to be the brother from Philadelphia I first meta guy who went to a black school just like I did, who liked to play basketball, just a regular brotherand still be the persona of a television anchor. Im out here naked.. I walked into the general managers office and said, Do the decent thing and tear up my contract. Produced by Royal Kennedy Rodgers and Kathy McCampbell Vance, the 56-minute documentary's next local airing is at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 23 on KCET-HD. In his sophomore year, Vance got married. Royal Kennedy Rodgers is a producer, director, and writer with experience in local and network news, as well as public broadcasting television. Jim Vance was a steady voice who shared the news good or bad with grace. Vance was still collecting a salary from the station, but the money went straight to New York, where Liebner saw to it that his rent, his children, and other necessities were taken care of. But after a year, I said wait a minute, I can do other stories, too. I think he wanted to make sure that when Vance came back, he and I were comfortable with each other, which we were. "Our goal was to make sure we were true to his story, from the point of view of somebody who might have experienced similar difficulties, similar boundaries that were put in place at the time," said McCampbell Vance. Kathy McCampbell Vance is an Emmy Award winning television producer, specializing in news, entertainment, and documentary production. Theres no rug on the living-room floor, and the art on the walls tends towards framed posters. When they go out to dinner, they favor low-key places like Negril in Bethesda or La Tomate, whose proprietor, George Koropoulos, is a long-time buddy. He knows too much. He is estranged from his current wife, Kathy McCampbell Vance, a former WRC producer and news executive. And I was not kidding. But 99.9 percent of them I only did once, because I really didnt like them. With Karen Grigsby Bates, she has written Basic Black: Home Training for Modern Times and The New Basic Black, both etiquette books for our times. [17], Vance lived in Silver Spring, Maryland. I was a big man on campus. And although Vance didnt plan it that way, there is nothing better he could have done to help his career. He replaced a veteran white correspondent, Neil Boggs, who did not go quietly. Thats what you do when youre a parent. Stand up. That was our goal, $300 a week. And man, that was so good, just to be able to say, You all come on and let me do the best I can to say how grateful I am for everything you did for me., Vance never lost touch with his mother, but their relationship was strained. Sometimes he left at 7 and came back to do the 11 oclock show as high as a kite. A lot of guys remember those stairs at Metropolis. She is currently an independent producer based in Washington, DC. In sports, I was expected to be a starter on all the teams I played on. Youll become a celebrity for recovering. I dont want to get schmaltzy about it, but as a consequence of not surrendering to those dark temptations, the sun that I see every day is much brighter than Ive ever seen it before. Blacks were not allowed in the plumbers union in those days, which kept them out of construction jobs. At the same time he got his first taste of the news business, doing radio newscasts on weekends for a popular deejay known as the Mighty Burner., His real love was the Philadelphia Independent, a now-defunct black newspaper acquired by his father-in-laws partner. There was a part of me that was determined to kill me. Getty He cried about everything. I ended up just crying a river. He sought treatment daily at the Kolmac Clinic in Silver Spring, attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings at 11 a.m. each day, went to Narcotics Anonymous meetings at night, and began seeing a therapist three days a week. My father didnt want me, and thats why he died. The marriage lasted 10 months. [11] Vance earned 19 Emmy Awards, one of which was for his coverage of the 1977 Hanafi Siege of three buildings in downtown Washington, D.C.[12] He also won an Emmy for his coverage of the January 1982 crash of Air Florida Flight 90 in the Potomac River that killed 78 people and a Metrorail train derailment the same day, which killed three people. They had police radios in their cars, and when they heard an accident, they would haul ass, trying to get there before any other wreck-chaser. I was especially terrified of the Sunday Post. At age 5, he cleaned copper fittings and carried buckets for 25 cents a week. Bradley and Bucky were city kids, and they used to laugh at me for being country. But somehow, when they Jonesed on me, it didnt hurt my feelings. I try not to bullshit them with any blanket horror stories about what it will do to you if you drink a beer. By the late 70s, Vance was an institution. In 2014, Jim Vance received the Board of Governor's Award for outstanding achievement and community service. If somebody came here from another planet and looked at our news, the totality of their awareness about black people would have to do with pathology, he says. But more to the point, that is when it occurred to me that maybe all I gotta do is just be myself. Success had a way of calling forth his demonshis feelings of insecurity and unworthiness, compounded by others high expectations. He had already started to wonder himself if he hadnt done something pretty heroic. So Vance enrolled in Cheyney State, a black teachers college outside Philadelphia. I wanted to tell our side, so in the beginning I wanted all the black assignments. The two men fished together several times. Jim Vance. We have been friends on a professional level for 20 years, from the time I produced the nightly newscasts at WRC, but for the past five years he has refused a half-dozen of my requests for an interview. . There are places I have not been in seven yearsplaces I wont go again. In 2011, the Washingtonian reported, A father of three, Vance has been married to former Channel 4 news producer Kathy McCampbell Vance for 24 years and lives in DCs Spring Valley.. Kathy especially was a rock. Checks can be mailed to:AAHHPO Box 413Chautauqua, NY 14722For more information about the AAHH and how you can support our mission, please contact:Erroll Daviserrolldavis@outlook.com, African American Heritage House at Chautauqua- 38 Clark Ave. And after the meeting, some guys came over and said, Man, are we glad to see you. Hes certainly not the best reader on TV; for 25 years producers have been trying to get him to put more energy into his delivery. All the men in the family worked in the family plumbing business, James H. Vance & Sons. But on that occasion when I did it, something happened. But the family sat him down at the big round dining room table where all matters of importance were addressed. The last thing in the world I wanted to do was to be part of a story that was just beginning and that I knew I would be covering for many months to come. He defined what was best about journalism in DC & never lost the common touch pic.twitter.com/HSdPa0EIlG, Eric Holder (@EricHolder) July 22, 2017, Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser wrote on Twitter, Our thoughts & prayers are w/ his family. [9], Beginning in 1989, Vance was part of the longest-running anchor team in Washington D.C. television, alongside co-anchor and health reporter Doreen Gentzler. He and Barbara packed up their 67 Camaro and headed for DC. One day he came in and I kind of had the blues. Vance had three children, Dawn, Amani, and Brendon. I never in my life, for 40-some years, had the notion that I deserved good things. They said I have cancer, and I need treatment. We are having lunch at La Tomate, a favorite restaurant of his near Dupont Circle, and he stops and points to his outfithis Harley T-shirt and denim jacket. She recently launched Gumbo Girlz, an interactive journal for middle readers. I was hardly eating at the time. Those of us who know him can sense when he needs space, and everybody gave him plenty of it, says Arch Campbell. That rascal was playing chicken on Lancaster Pike and hit a fire hydrant, she says. Often he was moving, even poetic, but his commentaries on race and politics irritated many viewers. And the rest of the stuff would just go bad. I had it scripted, but all of a sudden, when I changed my mike and stood up there, I lost any concern about Cronkite, Brinkley, and all the rest of them. They said I have cancer, and I need treatment. And if I can find a spittoon, I am really at home. Its still hurting. He took his knee and slammed it into the back of mine. If you've lived here for decades, you understand. He still has a hard time staying in one place. Jim Vance, Actor: The Event. Aunt Rett was always chewing him out for not speaking correctly. I thought I was dangerous. which holds his wigglers, rattlers, and a hundred other lures of every shape, size, and color, and hell take them all out and spend hours rearranging that box., In self-defense, McCampbell recently took up the piano and sketching. For more than 45 years, Jim Vance was not only the soul of NBC4 but of the entire Washington area, NBC4 president Jackie Bradford said in a statement. Did not go quietly was battling cancer currently an independent producer based Washington. The grace of God all matters of importance were addressed then, if a girl got pregnant you. Bullshit them with any blanket horror stories about what it will do to you if drink. 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