Sandra Marth Hill (born February 2, 1946) is an American television journalist and Miss Washington; she is also a writer and commercial real estate broker.

Early life

Born Sandra Lee Marth in

Centralia, Washington Centralia () is a city in Lewis County, Washington, Lewis County, Washington (state), Washington, United States. It is located along Interstate 5 in Washington, Interstate 5 near the midpoint between Seattle and Portland, Oregon. The city had a ...

, she was raised on a farm there. Her father, John Marth, helped build the local

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

church. She was heavily involved with music and the church from an early age. She was smart and studious, graduating from Centralia High School near the top of her class. However, she was a self-proclaimed social outcast. That did not stop her from being crowned Miss Lewis County in 1965 and Miss Washington in 1966. She attended the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

on scholarship, where she studied

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

and joined

Kappa Alpha Theta Kappa Alpha Theta (), commonly referred to simply as Theta, is an international Fraternities and sororities, sorority founded on January 27, 1870, at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. It was the first Greek-letter fraternity established ...

sorority In North America, fraternities and sororities ( and ) are social clubs at colleges and universities. They are sometimes collectively referred to as Greek life or Greek-letter organizations, as well as collegiate fraternities or collegiate sorori ...

. After college, Hill worked in

human resources Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include ' ...

as an employment recruiter for Seattle First National Bank in Seattle, where she met Craig Hill, a junior banker at the time; the two married in 1969.

News career

In the 1960s, women were virtually nonexistent in television news, with the exception of the occasional "weather girl." Hill had intended on going into international relations. By happenstance, Hill and her husband saw a newspaper advertisement looking for a women's editor on a local TV station. She applied and got the job three weeks later. Hill began her career on air in 1969, by hosting a midday interview and news show on KIRO, the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

affiliate in Seattle. Soon she doubled as a "street" reporter for the evening edition of KIRO's ''Eyewitness News''. She earned a devoted following in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

. During her tenure at KIRO, she won multiple local Emmy Awards for broadcasting; locals also still remember her for hosting the ''Big Money Movie'' in the afternoon. Because of her success in Seattle, Hill was approached to co-anchor the ''Channel 2 News'' at CBS owned-and-operated KNXT (now

KCBS-TV KCBS-TV (channel 2), branded CBS Los Angeles, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast of the United States, West Coast flagship station of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the n ...

) in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

When she accepted that position, she became the first female anchor in Los Angeles, working alongside Jerry Dunphy, Bill Stout and

Joseph Benti Joseph Benti is an American former television news correspondent for CBS News who also served as anchor of the CBS Morning News from 1966 until 1970. Based in Los Angeles for most of his career, Benti later worked as a local anchor for KABC-TV and ...

. Unfortunately, due to poor results from a focus group, she and a number of her fellow anchors were dismissed from KNXT in 1976. She immediately received an offer from the ABC owned-and-operated station Shortly after joining ABC, Hill was offered a national spot to join David Hartman as co-host of ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...

'', where she debuted on April 25, 1977, as a replacement for The format of the show was primarily driven by studio interviews in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

led by Hartman, however, Hill successfully sought out her own interviews to conduct in In 1980, Hill was replaced in the studio by Joan Lunden, but briefly stayed on GMA as a feature reporter; she went on to work for

ABC Sports ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial America ...

and '' Wide World of Sports''. In 1982, Hill was asked by CBS to return to KNXT in Los Angeles as an anchor for the 4:30 p.m. edition of ''Channel 2 News''. She would later succeed

Connie Chung Constance Yu-Hwa Chung Povich (née Chung; born August 20, 1946) is an American journalist who has been a news anchor and reporter for the U.S. television news networks American Broadcasting Company, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC. Some of her m ...

(who went to

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...

in 1983) on KNXT's 11:00 p.m. newscast. Her co-anchors during her second stint at KNXT included Ralph Story, Jess Marlow and

John Schubeck John Schubeck (March 18, 1936 – September 26, 1997) was an American television reporter and anchor, and one of the few to anchor newscasts on all three network owned-and-operated stations in one major market. Schubeck was born in Detroit, Mic ...

. However, in 1986, Hill was dismissed again by the station (which had changed its call letters to KCBS two years earlier), to the disappointment of her fans. Nevertheless, she returned as the co-host of '' The CBS Morning News'' later that year. Hill also would replace

Mariette Hartley Mary Loretta Hartley (born June 21, 1940) is an American film and television actress. She is possibly best known for her roles in film as Elsa Knudsen in Sam Peckinpah's '' Ride the High Country'' (1962), Susan Clabon in Alfred Hitchcock's '' M ...

during the final weeks of CBS' short-lived '' The Morning Program'' In 1988, she started with ''

Home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or more human occupants, and sometimes various companion animals. Homes provide sheltered spaces, for instance rooms, where domestic activity can be p ...

'' on ABC. She also worked with the

British government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

to create a travelog for Britain that eventually aired on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

. In 1994, she made a cameo appearance playing a fictional version of herself in the opening minutes of the science fiction film '' Without Warning'', which was formatted as a simulated news broadcast.

Personal life

Along with her husband and son, Hill returned to their home state of Washington. She is a hobbyist author, but won the Literary Contest held by PNWA for her book, ''Dance While the Moon Shines''. The book is a tribute to her family, and their moonshining roots. Her husband and son continue to encourage Sandy to write her own story as one of the first women in television news.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Sandy University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences alumni 1947 births Living people American television journalists American television personalities American women journalists 21st-century American women