Person to Person: Brenda Blackmon
Brenda Blackmon’s plate is so full, she practically needs another plate. Blackmon is a four-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, co-anchor of The 10 O’Clock News on WWOR My9 and co-host of NJ Now. She’s also the author of Brenda Blackmon: A Mom’s Story, a spirited fighter in the campaign against Lupus, mom to Kelly, who was diagnosed with the chronic inflammatory disease in 2008, and a late-blooming Bergen County fan.
“I love it all, but my family and The Kelly Fund for Lupus are most important to me,” Blackmon says. “New Jersey is home now. We moved here when Kelly was just beyond being a toddler. It was her fourth birthday, and at school it was her birthday and Martin Luther King’s birthday, so it was like they were celebrating that she’d arrived. This is all she’s known. She’s grown up being a Jersey girl, and I was a Southerner. It’s been this conflict of cultures and upbringings. I have now lived here longer than I lived in Georgia. So I say that Jersey is home and this is the place I was always meant to be.”
“I’ve interviewed Jack Kevorkian, Sarah Palin and Donald Trump. I’m supposed to have a ‘get’ list, right? Oprah talks about wanting to interview O.J. and getting him to confess. Mine would not be people like that. I’d like to sit down with the President’s kids. Nobody talks to the presidential kids. I’d like to talk to them.”
“I love our local movie theater – the TENAFLY CINEMA 4. I can walk there for the exercise, and I feel safe at night. I see people and talk to them; it’s not like you’re among strangers.”
“I love the local bookstore, WOMRATH’S.”
“A couple of years ago, a friend of mine introduced me to a restaurant called CAFE ANGELIQUE. I’d never eaten outside and I was like, ‘This is so wonderful.’ I’m just so blessed to still be discovering parts of Tenafly. Now I want to discover the parks in Tenafly. I’m going to discover my own town.”
“I get food to go from BRASSERIE on Washington Street. The food is divine.”
“I love my job. Every day is different, and, fortunately, not every day is about bad news. There was even a time when we had a ‘Good News’ segment, where we went out and found good news stories to tell every day. Now we have a segment called ‘FYI,’ For Your Interest, which is news that people are interested in. So I enjoy reporting the big stories and giving information and giving opinions, and I love it any time I can help somebody or help them help themselves. It’s really heartwarming.”
By: Ian Spelling, 201 Magazine/Bergen.com
Date: October 2, 2011
Source: http://www.bergen.com/people/Person-to-Person_Tenafly_resident_My9_news_co-anchor_Brenda_Blackmon_considers_herself_a_Jersey_girl.html