Well done and good luck, Gayle Sierens.
Over the years I was lucky to have spent a bit of off-camera time with Tampa’s now retired TV co-anchor. Also met her family. As nice as depicted.
She was unique for all the reasons that have been so well chronicled. A hometown girl who made it big in her hometown–in a business that is about market hopping. She made history with that NFL play-by-play call. She was synonymous with community involvement. It was only fitting that the Tampa Bay Lightning recently named her a Lightning Community Hero and gave $50,000 in her name to the Judeo Christian Health Clinic and LifePath Hospice.
Dr. Sylvia Campbell, M.D., a former president of JCHC, called Sierens a “special gift to our community. She gives so much of herself, both heart and soul, to anyone in need.”
And then there is this. For 38 years she was arguably too nice for a business that traffics inevitably in all that goes wrong in our world. Often, horribly, tragically so. She was the conduit. No contrived Diane Sawyer empathy. No “star” presence.
She once told me: “There are prettier and probably smarter. But at the end of the day, it’s really about trust and a comfort level. I look for ways to say ‘Here’s how it might affect you.'”
To the very end, she was Gayle Sierens, Tampa Catholic kid who made good where she grew up. Modest. Earnest. Authentic. Involved. Classy. Her last night on the WFLA-Channel 8 set–colleagues, friends, family members in attendance–was touching and, well, hometown.