Emmy-winning local news mainstay John Slattery, a 30-year veteran of WCBS-TV, died after a sudden heart attack only hours after filing his final story, the station announced.
“A grey day,” his CBS colleague Lou Young tweeted Thursday morning. “Our friend John Slattery has passed. We go on with warm memories and tears.”
General assignment reporter Slattery worked Wednesday, covering a Bronx attack on a 72-year-old Good Samaritan who stepped in to protect a mugging victim.
Slattery, 63, was among the city’s longest-serving television reporters, joining WABC-TV in 1979 and participating in the Emmy-winning coverage of the December 1980 assassination of ex-Beatle John Lennon.
He moved to WCBS four years later and found a home, spending the rest of his career there.
Colleagues and competitors were quick to hail Slattery’s consistently excellent work. He won four Emmys during his career.
“So sorry to hear about the passing,” tweeted WABC-TV reporter Marcus Solis. “John was a great storyteller and a true gentleman.
Peter Dunn, WCBS president and general manager, said the death caught everyone by surprise.
“We are saddened by the unexpected passing of our friend and colleague,” said Dunn. “During his nearly 30-year career at WCBS, he was great at reporting the news and was someone we counted on to cover big stories for us, both here in New York and around the world.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with John's wife, Suzie, and their children and grandchildren."
Slattery, during his long run at the station, covered the 9/11 attacks, the Abner Louima police brutality case, the “Miracle on the Hudson” landing of US Airways Flight 1549 and Hurricane Sandy.
Slattery traveled to the Vatican for Edward Cardinal Egan’s elevation from archbishop, to Saudi Arabia for coverage of the Gulf War and to Ireland with John Cardinal O’Connor and Mayor Ed Koch.
His career started in radio, where Slattery worked at three small Illinois stations before moving to television in the Champaign-Urbana market.
He moved to WCAU-TV in Philadelphia before coming north to New York in 1979.
Slattery was a past president of The Inner Circle, a group of City Hall reporters who present an annual political lampoon.
Veteran WCBS Reporter John Slattery Passes Away
Typography
- Smaller Small Medium Big Bigger
- Default Helvetica Segoe Georgia Times
- Reading Mode
