Melba Tolliver Bio, Age, Net Worth, Married, Husband & Career

Have you ever heard a quote, ‘Accomplishments have no color‘?. Regardless of religion, skin color, ethnicity, and background, a person can achieve so much. And, today we are going to talk about that personality who made a name for herself in the American Journalism industry.

Melba Tolliver is an American journalist and a former New York City news anchor and reporter. Not only that, but she is the first African women ever to anchor on a news network.

We have so much to talk about this lady who was known for her rebellious nature against racism. Melba is best remembered for her stance against ABC owned WABC-TV. So, let’s know more about her, how much she earned, what is her net worth and what makes her so special.

Stay tuned with us and keep scrolling down.

Melba Tolliver’s Bio & Wiki

Melba Tolliver was born on December 7, 1939, in Rome, Georgia, United States. She grew up in Ohio and came to New York in 1957. Tolliver holds a Bachelor of Science from SUNY Empire State College and a nursing diploma from New York University-Bellevue, New York City.

Melba Tolliver’s Net Worth

Melba Tolliver has a net worth of over $500,000 as of 2019. During her stints at WABC-TV, she earned a pretty desirable amount of income. Tolliver worked for many stations including WABC-TV, WNBC-TV, News 12 Long Island, and a few news stations.

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Melba Tolliver’s Personal Life: Married, Husband

Melba Tolliver is a divorced woman, but this was in her early 20s. The exact information about her married life is unknown but she considers divorce to be her biggest failure. It is also not known whether she remarried again or not.

Melba Tolliver’s Professional Life

Tolliver worked as a registered nurse and later became a secretary at ABC in November 1966. She also worked at Strikes by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists in April 1967 and the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians.

Later, Tolliver became a full-time reporter and anchor at WABC-TV from 1967 to 1976. She then joined WNBC-TV, where she remained until 1980. She also worked at News 12 Long Island from 1986 to 1994.

Melba Tolliver’s Awards

In 2015, Tolliver received a Distinguished Alumni Award from Empire State College. Tolliver received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Molloy College, Long Island, N.Y.

Take a look at some of Tolliver’s  achievements:

• Political Reporting Award from Lincoln University,
• Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Association of Black Journalists,
• John B. Russwurm Award from the New York City Urban League,
• Matrix Award from New York Women in Communications,
• National Endowment of the Humanities Fellowship to the University of Michigan.

Melba Tolliver’s Controversies

Melba belongs to an American-Afro woman and that hairdo caused a lot of consternation in the summer of 1971 among executives at WABC television. During the talk, she admitted:

“The day before I was supposed to cover Tricia Nixon’s wedding at the White House, I got my hair changed to a natural—previously, I’d been having it straightened—and can you believe they actually told me I couldn’t appear live in the studio unless I changed my hair back to the way it used to look? They said I looked less attractive—less feminine. But it was their standard of femininity, not mine.”

Tolliver refused to straighten her hair and she was told she could not sit in the studio behind the long table with Grimsby and Beutel to do a wrap‐up of the weekend wedding.

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Melba Tolliver’s Facts

Currently, Tolliver is in the process of a memoir titled, “Accidental Anchorwoman, a Memoir of Chance, Choice, and Change.” For nearly three decades, Tolliver reported and/or anchored news at WABC-TV, WNBC-TV, News 12 Long Island and the Food Channel, in addition to writing for USA Today, Good Housekeeping, Black Sports and other magazines and newspapers.