The first woman in television history to be host of a daytime news show and, perhaps, the first female television anchor anywhere, Terre Haute native Wanda Ramey was a media trailblazer.

Ramey has the distinction of being a co-host of the first noon local television newscast ever aired in America.

The winner of numerous awards, including an Emmy, Ramey is featured in a chapter of the recent book, "Indelible Images: Women of Local Television," published by the Iowa State University Press.

The daughter of Hiram Ramey and May Stewart Ramey, Wanda was an honor student at Garfield High School, where she graduated in 1941. As a senior, she won the highest rating in radio announcing at the Indiana Forensic Festival.

Hiram Ramey worked for many years at the Terre Haute office of American Railway Express with the father of popular American novelist John Jakes.

In November 1944 -- while Ramey was a prize speech and radio journalism student at Indiana State Teachers College under the tutelage of Professor Clarence M. Morgan, "The Hoosier Schoolmaster of the Air" -- her father was transferred to San Francisco.

Wanda and her younger sister, Vanita, then a Garfield senior, resided with a maternal aunt until both received diplomas in June.

Known as the "girl with a flower in her hair" during her college years, Ramey was regularly featured on WBOW, which had a campus studio, was secretary of the junior class, president of Kappa Kappa social sorority, a member of Alpha Phi Gamma journalism honorary and Theta Alpha Phi theater honorary, and served as an officer in Pamarista, the women's scholastic honorary sorority.

Upon graduation, Ramey located near her parents in California, eventually accepting employment at a recording studio in Los Angeles and, then, at Warner Studios. Her first radio job was with KPIK in San Luis Obispo.

During 1947, she returned to San Francisco to work for KSFO radio. Her first task was to interview celebrities residing at Hearst Ranch. Following the success of that venture, two new interview shows were added to the programming.

Not many women were welcome in the broadcasting industry during the Fifties. After anchoring "Midday with Wanda," a noon news and interview show on KGO-TV, for a few months in 1952, she was fired because men were "more credible newscasters."

Ramey was resilient, landing a position interviewing celebrities with KCBS. Stellar work there led to a news job with KPIX, San Francisco's first television station, in 1957.

Credibility was not an issue at KPIX. Program director Ray Hubbard created "The Noon News," a 30-minute daytime news show co-anchored by John Weston and "Wanda Ramey, Channel 5's Gal on the Go." The first program was aired Feb. 16, 1959.

At the time and for many years thereafter, no one had ever heard of Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer or Jane Pauley.

Thanks to Ramey's innovative style, the program became the area's top television news show within months. She interrogated beatniks at North Beach, made midnight calls in police cars and talked to construction workers working on skyscrapers.

Throughout her 40-year career, Ramey interviewed thousands of personalities, including people like John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Ronald Reagan, Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Nixon, Carl Sandburg and convicted murderer Caryl Chessman. One Mother's Day she interviewed May Ramey.

A probing interview of childhood idol Eleanor Roosevelt remains her most memorable.

While her career ranked high in importance, Wanda was devoted to her family. In 1958, she married Richard "Dick" Queirolo, a sheet music company executive and a professional photographer. Their only child, Kristi Louise, was born in 1962. Comedienne Phyllis Diller, Wanda's best friend, is Kristi's godmother.

In 1960, the Queirolos visited San Quentin Prison together to do a documentary on prison life. The venture evolved into a long-term relationship. Each year thereafter, the couple conducted film and television production classes for prisoners. In 1965, Wanda was honored as an "Honorary Inmate" by the San Quentin population.

On Feb. 15, 1967, "The Cage," a documentary produced by 50 prisoners trained by the Queirolos, was aired on educational television.

Ramey remained with KPIX until Kristi entered school in 1967. Then she accepted lighter duty as host of "The Public Broadcast Laboratory," a weekly two-hour national program originating from KQED, San Francisco's public broadcasting television station. The program made its national debut Nov. 5, 1967.

Public broadcasting had been close to Wanda's heart for many years. In 1954, she organized a fund-raising telethon to rescue KQED from demise.

For more than 10 years she was Bay Area correspondent for "Voice of America."

In 1968, Indiana State University officially declared her a Distinguished Alumna.

Ramey retains celebrity status in retirement, occasionally producing documentary films, teaching workshops and serving in responsible positions with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, where she was a national officer; National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences; Women in Communications; and Broadcast Legends.

Phyllis Diller was not joking when she once said publicly, "Having Wanda Ramey for a friend is like having a million dollars in your checking account." Diller added, "She's a trailblazer in broadcasting [and] as soft and quiet as a rose petal."

Wanda's sister, Vanita Gibbs, retired professor of education at Indiana State, still resides in Terre Haute.