Factbox-Key facts on pioneering broadcast journalist Barbara Walters

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – Here are some key facts about Barbara Walters. She was the first woman to anchor an American television newscast at night.

* Walters was born in Boston on Sept. 25, but she did not like to reveal the year, which reportedly was 1929, 1930 or 1931. ABC News, Walters’ long-time home network, reported that she had died at 93. This put her birth date at 1929. Louis, her father was a theatre producer and also founded the Latin Quarter nightclub.

* Walters started at NBC’s “Today” show as a writer in 1961 and in 1976 became the first woman to co-anchor a network evening news broadcast on U.S. television. Up until 1978, she was part of the team that produced “ABC Evening News” and was paid $1 million per annum for her special programs and news shows.

* Walters singled out her “Today” co-host Frank McGee and Reasoner on ABC News for making her life miserable. She stated that McGee tried to limit her contributions on “Today” while Reasoner was openly bitter about her presence at the anchor desk.

* After leaving ABC’s evening newscast, Walters became a television superstar as co-anchor of the ABC network’s prime-time news magazine show “20/20” and host of special interview programs.

* The list of world leaders interviewed by Walters includes India’s Indira Gandhi, Egypt’s Anwar Al Sadat, Israel’s Menachem Begin, the Shah of Iran, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Britain’s Margaret Thatcher, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Russia’s Boris Yeltsin and every U.S. president since Richard Nixon.

* Walters was offended by Gilda Radner’s “Bawa Wawa” impersonation of her on the NBC comedy show “Saturday Night Live.” “Audiences found her imitating my pronunciation of L and R, as well as W, hilarious. It was extremely distressing,” she wrote. Walters asked Radner for the impersonation when Radner met her. Walters claimed they parted as friends.

* Walters felt she was unfairly mocked for her asking actress Katharine Hepburn what kind of tree she would like to be. Walters stated that the question was appropriate in response to Hepburn’s comment about herself being a tree. Hepburn replied that she was an oak to the question.

* Walters created “The View” on ABC in 1997 as a roundtable discussion for women. She often appeared on the program and was required to mediate any controversies that were being stirred up by Star Jones or Rosie O’Donnell.

* Walters’ marriages to businessman Robert Katz, theatrical producer Lee Guber and television executive Merv Adelson all ended in divorce. She was also involved with John Warner (later a senator from Virginia), and Alan Greenspan (previous head of the Federal Reserve). In 2008, she wrote about an affair with Edward Brooke (Massachusetts), the first black senator following the Civil War Reconstruction.

(Written by Bill Trott; Editing done by Steve Gorman, Kim Coghill).