American pioneering television news reporter who interviewed some 1,200 personalities in the course of her career, including several US Presidents and an astronaut. Her most memorable interview was with Eleanor Roosevelt, who was Ramey’s own inspiration as a girl.
Ramey began her small screen career working at KGO-TV in San Francisco in 1952. She first hosted Midday with Wanda, a short-lived news and interview show, then in 1954 she hosted The Woman Behind the Man (interviewing the wives of famous Bay-area men).
The KGO job did not last long. Vince Francis, KGO general manager, fired her by telling her that women did not do a good job as newscasters. It took her several months to find another broadcasting job, this time at KCBS (AM) radio in San Francisco. On that job, her on-air name was Jane Todd. She hosted the program Meet Me at Mannings, which featured interviews with women.
In 1957, Ramey was hired as a newscaster by KPIX-TV, San Francisco’s first television station. The station was one of the first to create a half-hour news program at mid-day, and they made further history by casting one of the first female newscasters (Ramey) on the program. She was variously referred to as “Channel 5’s Gal on the Go”, “Girl on the Beat”, and “Woman on the Beat”. She left KPIX in 1967.
After 1967 Ramey avoided further full-time broadcasting work. She served as a Bay-area correspondent with the Voice of America, worked part-time at local PBS station KQED-TV, and volunteered with Bay-area charities and projects. During the late 1960s, she worked as a reporter on KGO-TVs Newsbeat nightly newscast.
She was married to Richard Queirolo and assumed his name, but continued to use her maiden name in her professional life. On New Year’s Eve 1960, Ramey and her husband visited San Quentin State Prison to film a story about conditions there. The visit led to their setting up a local television station within the prison (SQTV), prison-sponsored with much of the production work performed by inmates.
In 1958, Ramey received an Emmy Award for television journalism. She was inducted into the Marin Women’s Hall of Fame in the 1990s.
Ramey died of cancer at her home in Greenbrae on 15 August 2009, aged 85. Longtime friend (and godmother of Ramey’s daughter) Phyllis Diller said of Ramey: “Having Wanda for a friend is like having a million dollars in your checking account.”
Link to Wikipedia biography