MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - The Lansing region lost one of its most revered journalists on Thursday, December 3rd when Jo Anne Paul lost a short battle with cancer. Jo Anne spent more than 30 years in television and radio news, working as a reporter, anchor and show host at several stations including WXYZ-TV(Detroit), WAAM Radio (Ann Arbor), WEYI-TV (Flint), WLNS-TV (Lansing), WTMJ-TV (Milwaukee, WI), and WJIM, WITL, and WKMF radio (Lansing). Since 2007 she was the lead Election Host and Debate Moderator at HOMTV.

Jo Anne was a gifted writer and interviewer, who used her stylings to tell the stories of many others through award-winning reporting. Jo Anne was a mentor to many young reporters and producers, a credible, hard-working journalist, who enjoyed newsroom banter but was the consummate professional when the lights came on. While Jo Anne enjoyed her years in broadcasting, she lived for her three sons. Nothing could top the love she had, and the joy she found, in Brent, Ryan, and Christopher. Jo Anne was a loving, caring mother, who forever believed her sons’ collective happiness and well-being was her most critical responsibility. She was a great mother…wife…and friend.

A Memorial Mass for Jo Anne will be held at 11 am Wednesday December 9, at St. Mary Catholic Church in Williamston. Visitation with family, friends and colleagues will be December 8 from 5-8 pm at St. Joseph Hall located at St. Mary Church 157 High St.

At the annual HOMTV Intern Appreciation Night Monday, December 8, fellow journalists and colleagues paid tribute to Jo Anne in loving memory.