Journalist and broadcaster Betty Kennedy, p Front Page Challenge ], 91

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Journalist and broadcaster Betty Kennedy dead at 91
Best known for being a panellist on CBC-TV's trivia show Front Page Challenge

By Haydn Watters, CBC News Posted: Mar 21, 2017 3:07 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 21, 2017 3:54 PM ET

Journalist and broadcaster Betty Kennedy, who was born and raised in Ottawa, died on Monday at the age of 91.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/betty-kennedy-obit-1.4034660

PHOTO Journalist and broadcaster Betty Kennedy, who was born and raised in Ottawa, died on Monday at the age of 91. (CBC)

Journalist and television personality Betty Kennedy, famed for her work on CBC's long-running trivia show Front Page Challenge, has died at 91.

Kennedy, who was born and raised in Ottawa, died on Monday, according to a statement from her family.

Kennedy's interviewing ease charmed audiences but she said her career in broadcasting actually came about by fluke. She got her start at the Ottawa Citizen, working on the newspaper. When the paper's staff went on strike, she was asked to host a radio show in an effort to keep subscribers from fleeing.

CFRB, the talk radio station in Toronto, took notice and she soon made the jump to the city to host her own program: The Betty Kennedy Show. That's where she developed her signature interviewing style — posing a question and just letting her interview subjects talk. And they liked it.

During an interview on the show with American architect Buckminster Fuller, he told Kennedy: "I don't think I recall a conversation where anybody has been quite as logically sensitive as you are about these questions you ask."

In the show's 27 years, Kennedy got to talk to 25,000 guests, from celebrities and politicians to people trying to make their communities better.
'She has class'

But it was her appearances as a panellist on CBC-TV's Front Page Challenge that's she's perhaps best known for. She started with the show in 1962 and lasted until its cancellation in 1995.

There she was paired with famed journalists like Pierre Berton and Gordon Sinclair, something she found intimidating at first. During a 1965 TV interview with CBC's Elwood Glover, she said she was "scared to death" to start, but soon found that both men weren't that "frightening at all."

PHOTO Front Page Challenge
Gordon Sinclair (left), Betty Kennedy (second from left), guest panellist Lister Sinclair (second from right) and Pierre Berton, along with mystery guest Charlotte Whitton (top) take part in an episode of CBC's Front Page Challenge in November 1963. (CBC Still Image Collection)

The show's one-time producer Don Brown once said she was a perfect fit: "She has class. She's a very experienced journalist. She brought dignity, a femininity, a cool, controlled intelligence."

[DanNospamSay]

Betty Kennedy, journalist and Front Page Challenge panellist, dead at 91

For 27 years, she hosted the “Betty Kennedy Show” on Toronto’s CFRB radio. And for 33 years, she was the lone female panellist on CBC’s “Front Page Challenge.”
Betty Kennedy, well- known for her achievements as a broadcaster, journalist and author, has died. She was 91. (JONATHAN HAYWARD / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
By The Canadian Press

Tues., March 21, 2017

OTTAWA—Betty Kennedy, once one of Canada’s best-known television personalities, has died. She was 91.

The veteran journalist and broadcaster was for decades one of the country’s most recognized voices and faces.

For 27 years, she hosted the Betty Kennedy Show on Toronto’s CFRB radio, where she is credited with interviewing some 25,000 guests, from former prime minister Pierre Trudeau to actress Debbie Reynolds.

And for 33 years, she was the lone female panellist on CBC’s Front Page Challenge.

Betty Kennedy was named to the Order of Canada in Ottawa on Oct.20, 1982. The veteran journalist and broadcaster was for decades one of the country's most recognized voices and faces. (THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Kennedy was inducted into both the Canadian Broadcasting Hall of Fame and the Canadian News Hall of Fame and was named an officer of the Order of Canada.

She also served a brief stint as a senator, appointed to Canada’s upper house by then-prime minister Jean Chrétien in June 2000. She retired in January 2001 upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.
On Toronto’s CFRB radio, Betty Kennedy hosted the Betty Kennedy Show where she interviewed some 25,000 guests, including former prime minister Pierre Trudeau.
On Toronto’s CFRB radio, Betty Kennedy hosted the Betty Kennedy Show where she interviewed some 25,000 guests, including former prime minister Pierre Trudeau. (Frank Lennon)

She wrote two books: Gerhard: A Love Story, about her first husband who died in 1975, and Hurricane Hazel.

She married G. Allan Burton, head of Simpsons department stores, in 1976. He died in 2003.

Kennedy is survived by sons Mark, Shawn and D’Arcy Kennedy and daughter Tracy Brown.