Two years ago, MaryBeth Conley, who had been at Channel 3 in Memphis ever since I’ve been alive, called it a career after 37 years on the air and doing everything from consumer reports to doing the Live at 9:00 morning show with Alex Coleman from Peabody Place.
Her retirement, much like the ones Memphis celebrated with Tim Simpson, chief meteorologist on the same station, marked the end of an era in television in my hometown.
In retirement, Ms. Conley ended up marrying her childhood crush and becoming focused on something called Flip My Life, which focuses on rebuilding houses and sharing them with people that need a second chance (think Habitat For Humanity for formerly incarcerated individuals).
What MaryBeth Conley was to Memphis, Margaret Orr is to New Orleans.
Mrs. Orr, who began at WDSU in the same year Andrew Christopher Brees was born and four years after another New Orleans icon, the Superdome, opened, has been a constant in our lives here in the region for 45 years.
“We bury people in the river who slander Ms. Orr,” someone once told me, “We can slander politicians and other things, but we don’t play about Margaret Orr.”
I even once said on stage that I’ve defended Margaret Orr more than my estranged mother.
More importantly, much like MaryBeth Conley in Memphis, Margaret Orr watched generations of New Orleanians grow up. Where Conley was trying to keep us safe with her consumer reports on Channel 3, Orr kept generations of New Orleanians safe with her weather reports.
And now, after 45 years, Margaret Orr will delivering her last forecast.
We think of the people that we see on television as part of our family, especially our local reporters.
When they leave, be it to another job or retirement, we feel a tinge of sadness.
But in the end, we understand.
We understand.
Thank you, Margaret Orr.
Thank you.