Veteran TV Newsman Al Mann Dies

Al Mann, former ABC Evening Report anchorman, network correspondent and local station news director died on Feb. 9.

Mann started his news and broadcasting careers while in high school in Wichita Falls, Texas. He reported on high school events for the local paper and combined some on-air activities at KWFT-AM Wichita Falls. At 14, he took a semester away from school to serve as a page in the Senate of the 47th Texas State Legislature.

After graduation from high school in 1943, Mann entered the U.S. Navy in June 1944.  He was aboard ship in port near the USS Missouri as the documents ending World War II were signed.

World War II did not end his service to his country. He was recalled during the Korean Conflict and, thus, was a combat veteran of both wars.

After the Korean Conflict, Mann returned to Texas to WFAA-TV Dallas. This would lead to positions with ABC News in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles where he was a correspondent covering the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

His network anchoring duties included stints on the ABC Afternoon Report, and the ABC Evening Report — co-anchoring with Bill Lawrence and John Cameron Swayze.

After serving as an anchorman at CBS-owned KNXT-TV Los Angeles in the 1960s, Mann became news director of CBS-owned KMOX-TV St. Louis.

This led to the same job at WBBM-TV Chicago.

From there, he held news director positions in Pittsburgh and Greensboro-Winston Salem, N.C.

Mann rounded out his career as a public relations spokesperson for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, retiring in 1995.

A memorial service will be held at St. John’s United Church, 225 W. Lincoln Avenue, Chesterton, Ind., on Saturday, Feb. 18, at 11 a.m. Memorial contributions may be to St. John’s United Church.