NBC 5 family, friends, and viewers are remembering trailblazing NBC 5 entertainment correspondent Bobbie Wygant on Monday. The longtime reporter and TV host died on Sunday. She was 97.
As long as there has been television in Texas, NBC 5's Bobbie Wygant has been there. Wygant joined NBC 5 in September 1948 when it was known as WBAP-TV, two weeks before the station went on the air.
To quote Bobbie, "They poured me in with the foundation."
Born in Lafayette, Indiana, as Roberta Frances Connolly on Nov. 22, 1926, Bobbie and her husband Phil Wygant came to Texas after college. She had a degree in broadcasting and psychology from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and said she always wanted to come to Texas.
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"I was always in love with Texas. When I was a little kid I guess, movies and things, I just always knew that someday I would go to Texas," Wygant said.
During the early years, like everyone on that early Channel 5 staff, Wygant pitched in to do a little of everything. She started behind the scenes but eventually hosted live game shows and commercials and produced and hosted a live talk show, Dateline.
"I was the first woman to host a general interest television talk show. Before that women had to do the housekeeping things and the cooking and so forth." Wygant recalled. "The staff was 'moi!' I produced it. I did my own research," Wygant said.
In November 1963, Wygant was on the air with her popular midday show when news of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy came into the newsroom, interrupting her program several times. A few months later, during their debut tour of the US, she interviewed the Beatles.
After Dateline ended, Wygant transitioned into an arts and entertainment reporter for the station. She soon became known for the way she connected with celebrities, authors, and other newsmakers who stopped by Fort Worth to be interviewed by her.
Over the years Bobbie interviewed and befriended numerous Hollywood stars and became known for her celebrity interviews with everyone from Bob Hope to Bradley Cooper. A collection of some of her interviews can be watched here.
Throughout her career, Bobbie was honored with several recognitions and awards, including being inducted into the Gold Circle of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences marking her 50 years of contributions to television broadcasting and she was honored with a Gracie Award, an award that honors the achievement and programming of and by women. The award is named after Gracie Allen, wife of George Burns, whom she interviewed many times.
"George worked until two years before he died at 100. I’d like to do the same,” said Wygant.
Years after she technically retired from her seven decades at NBC 5, Wygant continued to contribute as a freelance arts and entertainment reporter, remaining camera-ready. She often took part in milestone birthdays for the TV station when NBC 5 turned 50, 65, and 75. In 2016, we helped her celebrate her 90th.
Well into her 80s and 90s, it was not uncommon to find Wygant at the NBC 5 studios sharing stories with friends, both old and new. She was forever captivating and a force, even in retirement.
In 2018, she published her memoir, Talking to the Stars: Bobbie Wygant’s Seventy Years in Television, where she recalled her trailblazing career as an arts and entertainment reporter. In addition to charming and often funny accounts of her encounters with the stars, Wygant’s observations of television broadcasting as it emerged at WBAP-TV offer fascinating insights into the infancy of today’s multibillion-dollar industry. This engaging and informative volume includes nearly four hundred photographs of her favorite celebrity encounters. The book also includes more than 300 photographs of her favorite celebrity encounters.
Bobbie met her husband Phil Wygant in college. He was a long-time program director at WBAP-TV and was her husband of 38 years before he died in 1986.
There will be a public service at 2 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 23 at St. Patrick Cathedral in Fort Worth.
