Family, Friends Mourn Death Of S. Florida TV Anchor

LAKE PLACID (CBSMiami) – Longtime South Florida broadcaster Wayne Fariss passed away Friday in Lake Placid, Florida.

Fariss anchored the six and 11 p.m. newcasts on WCKT, which is now Channel 7 WSVN, for 27 years.  He left the station after his contract was not renewed.

Drafted during the Korean War, Joseph Wayne Fariss started his broadcasting career with the Armed Forces Radio, according to CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald. After a stint at WDEL-TV in Delaware, Fariss moved to Tampa for three years where he did WTVT-TV's first newscasts.

A master interviewer, Fariss met and talked with Dr. Martin Luther King; Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev; former prime minister of Israel, Golda Meir; Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas and the deposed President of the Dominican Republic.

Through the years Fariss was recognized for his excellence in journalism with a Peabody, two Scripps-Howard Foundation Citations, the University of Missouri's Gold Journalism medallion and a Radio-Television News Directors award.

In 1962, he won the first of four Freedom Foundation awards for an exposé series on Communism.

Click Here for more on Fariss' remarkable career.

Fariss, 82, is survived by Betty, his wife of 59 years, and four children, Bob, David, Anne Reed and John.

(TM and © Copyright 2011 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald contributed to this report.)