Linda Cavanaugh
OAB Hall of Fame
Inducted 2000

As a journalist, Linda Cavanaugh has brought to television news reporting a standard of excellence unparalleled in Oklahoma. Her reporting has reflected a strong sense of responsibility to the viewers and their families in providing news and information relevant to their everyday lives. Her work reflects the strong bond of trust she develops with her subjects.

A University of Oklahoma Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Linda served a brief tenure in the magazine and newspaper fields before entering television. At age 22, she joined Channel 4 as an unpaid intern, later moving to Channel 5 as a reporter and morning anchor. After living in Virginia for 2 years, Linda returned to Oklahoma in 1977 and began a long and illustrious career at Channel 4. In 1979, she became the first female co-anchor of the weekday nightly news.

Oklahoma's most honored broadcast journalist; Linda has received over 30 national awards and twice as many state and regional awards in addition to 11 Emmys from the Heartland chapter of NATAS. In 1999, she was inducted into the Oklahoma journalism Hall of Fame.

Linda was the first journalist allowed to photograph ancient Indian rituals that have been restricted to tribal members only. Her resulting at 12-part series, “Strangers In Their Own Land”, brought a sense of understanding and pride to Oklahoma's 37 Indian tribes. The series received the Sigma Delta Chi National Distinguished Service Award and 10 other national awards. Linda was the first non-network journalist from the United States allowed into the Soviet Union under the country’s new “glasnost” in 1988. The documentary,”From red soil to Red Square”, received the George Washington University Weintal Prize for diplomatic reporting. She was the first American journalist allowed in the infamous Vietnam Hanoi Hilton prisoner of war camp. “Remember The Dragon” told the story of a war many would like to forget. The much-honored “Tapestry” relived the devastating bombing of the Alfred P Murrah building on April 19th, 1995. “Marijas Miracle,” “A Time to Die” and “Orphan Train” are other projects representative of her exemplary work.

The work of Linda Cavanaugh represents the ultimate in television news reporting, the work of a warm, compassionate and dedicated person with a great love for her art form, television news. Linda Cavanaugh is Oklahoma's first lady of Journalism - a title unchallenged.