Longtime NBC Washington anchor Pat Lawson Muse delivered her final broadcast at News4 on Friday, putting the exclamation point on a 40-plus-year career with the station.
In the 1970s, Lawson Muse was the afternoon drive-time anchor for WTOP. She made history with NBC Washington in 1982 as part of the first all-female local news team in the country alongside co-anchor Barbara Harrison.
In the years that followed, she would cover assignments that took her across the country to places such as San Ysidro, California, where a gunman massacred 21 people inside a McDonald’s in 1984, and New Jersey, where Pope John Paul ll visited in 1995.
As a reporter at NBC Washington, Lawson Muse went on to cover the local issues that affected people living and working in the D.C. region.
During her farewell speech Friday, Lawson Muse reflected on her experiences leading one of News4’s philanthropic efforts.
“A significant part of the good work that I’ve had the opportunity to do has been with many of you, our viewers, and our partners in the community, collecting backpacks for kids, as well as food and funds to feed families at Thanksgiving,” she said. “I am so very proud to have been the face of our Food for Families campaign for so many decades.”
After working with the likes of Jim Vance, Doreen Gentzler, Wendy Rieger, Bob Ryan, Arch Campbell and George Michael, she finished her career anchoring afternoons and evenings with a team that included Leon Harris, Doug Kammerer, Amelia Draper and Erika Gonzalez.
Gentzler retired last November after 33 years; Rieger died last April after battling cancer.
“These have without a doubt been some of the best, most, rewarding years of my life,” Lawson Muse said, signing off her final newscast. “I will miss being with you each weekday afternoon, and I’ll miss my NBC4 family, but now I get to begin and enjoy a new season and new sunrises, and I look forward to that.”
Eun Yang will fill the anchor seat left by Lawson Muse’s retirement. Former WUSA9 Anchor Tony Perkins will join in the mornings to fill Yang’s place.
Watch Pat Lawson Muse’s farewell broadcast.
