Longtime WFTV anchor and reporter Angela Jacobs died Tuesday following a courageous battle with metastatic breast cancer.
“She fought a valiant, dignified fight against breast cancer often masking difficult moments behind her brave, radiant smile,” said former WFTV anchor Nancy Alvarez in a Facebook post on July 20.
Shannon Butler, Jacobs’ colleague and friend described her as “fiercely loyal to her family and her friends” and said on-air “I never really asked Angela what she would want me to say about her death. And I realized that’s because she never talked about the ‘what if’. She only talked about her diagnosis so it would help someone else and only talked about life, because she just wanted to live it.”
Anchor Greg Warmoth added that Jacobs “had a strong faith in God, and heaven, and I believe in my heart that she is in heaven now and clearly not in pain.”
Jacobs joined WFTV as a general assignment reporter in February 2013 after nine years as a regional Emmy Award-winning anchor and sports reporter at WTSP in Tampa Bay. During her career, she covered major sporting events like the Super Bowl and World Series, hurricanes and more.
Along with former anchor Vanessa Echols and Alvarez, Jacobs was an advocate for breast cancer survivors, co-hosting “Hope and Healing” in 2021, a 30-minute special on WFTV after publicly sharing her cancer battle in 2020.
“Angela’s circle was small but mighty. She was a beloved daughter, sister, aunt, friend, partner and mama to her dog, Minka, who she doted on and adored. Forever young, forever beautiful,” Alvarez said.
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