Don Harrison (August 8, 1936 – May 2, 1998) was an anchor on

CNN Headline News HLN is an American basic cable network. Owned by CNN Worldwide, the network primarily carries true-crime programming, recently drifting away from limited live news programming. The channel was originally launched on January 1, 1982, by Tur ...

from 1982 until his death from renal cancer in 1998. He was a member of the original team of anchors when Headline News went on the air for the first time as "CNN2" in 1982. Harrison, a native of

Ottawa, Kansas Ottawa (pronounced ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Franklin County, Kansas, Franklin County, Kansas, United States. It is located on both banks of the Marais des Cygnes River near the center of Franklin County. As of the 2020 United ...

, graduated from Ottawa High School in 1954 and attended Kansas State Teachers College, now Emporia State University. He spent over three decades in the broadcast business. He began his TV career at WIBW in Topeka after previously doing radio. From 1962 to 1973, he was on the staff of KCMO-TV (now

KCTV KCTV (channel 5) is a television station in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Gray Media alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate KSMO-TV (channel 62). The two stations share studios on Shawnee Mission Parkway in ...

) in

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

. While there, he won an award from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for a documentary called "This Old House." He anchored WBAL-TV's Action News in

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

in the early 1970s. He was the lead anchor at

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

's WTSP from 1979 to 1982. For another four years, he worked for KMSP in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

- St. Paul. Harrison was also in high demand for voice-over work, mostly for Turner properties, including TBS,

Turner Sports TNT Sports is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery in the United States that is responsible for Sports broadcasting, sports broadcasts on its parent company's streaming service, Max (streaming service), Max, and primarily the TruTV, TBS (Americ ...

, and

CNN International Cable News Network International or CNN International (CNNi, simply branded on-air as CNN) is an international television channel and website, owned by CNN Worldwide. CNN International carries news-related programming worldwide; it cooperates ...

. In 1987, Harrison won the CableACE award for best news anchor. On January 10, 1992, Harrison came seconds away from reporting false reports of the death of George H.W. Bush after he vomited on the Japanese Prime Minister before an off-screen staff member intervened and shouted, "No! Stop!" The tip had been given by a man in

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

who had claimed to be Bush's physician. Harrison later said, "In my heart, I knew it wasn't accurate...I just knew that reading it was wrong." In 1992, Harrison auditioned for a lead anchor position for WTSP, the position he had previously held. Harrison lost a leg due to bone cancer at age 13 and a kidney, also because of cancer, in 1993. At the time of his death, he was married to his wife Carolyn and had two sons and a daughter. A previous marriage to his wife, Marilyn, ended when she died from

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

on May 24, 1976, aged 31.

External links

Photos of Don Harrison at Headline News

Video clips of Don Harrison on Headline News
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AP's obituary

CNN's obituary

Topeka Capital-Journal's obituary

American Journalism Review article about the time when Don Harrison was almost forced to announce the death of a U.S. president who was still alive

Harrison joins Baltimore's WBAL-TV in ''Broadcasting'', January 7, 1974

References

1937 births 1998 deaths American television news anchors People from Ottawa, Kansas Deaths from kidney cancer American male journalists {{US-journalist-1930s-stub